I'll add a vote of confidence for the MA series, but it really depends on
the average/maximum wind speeds at your QTH and how you use the tower. We
don't get high winds here very often (70 MPH district within 100 miles of
coastline.) Average speeds on a windy day might be 15-25 MPH, and that
happens just a few times a month. Usually it's dead calm or breezy with
gusts up to 15 MPH. In a big wind storm, it's rare for gusts to get much
over 30 MPH, and I've only seen 40 MPH once since installing the tower. I'm
particularly fortunate because my property is bordered by thick forest with
tall trees on all four sides. The tower has trees nearby on three sides. All
in all, a pretty tame situation.
However, there have been local reports within the last year of 60-70 MPH
winds resulting from strange weather systems. Because of that, and because
my MA-770MDP with TH-7 sways quite a bit when gusts get up into the 25 MPH
range, I put the tower up to full height only for contests and rare DX. The
rest of the time, I keep the tower down at 50 feet. The tower is very solid
at that height (and the TH-7 works just fine) and I would be confident
leaving it there with gusts up to 40 MPH. But just to be on the safe side, I
keep a close watch on the weather reports and have an anemometer with an
alarm. When the winds get up over 25 MPH, I just lower the tower all the way
down (I also do that whenever leaving the house overnight or longer.) Fully
lowered, the tower can withstand just about anything short of a tornado.
With winds above 25 MPH pretty rare, it's not much of a hassle to lower the
tower every now and then. But the big reason this works for me is that the
tower is motorized and remote controlled. If I had to hand crank it, I would
probably get lazy and leave it up more than I should. The motor and remote
control are expensive, but well worth it if circumstances dictate use of an
MA series tower (believe me, if a guyed tower had been feasible here, I
would have put one up -- you do what you can.)
Like I said, it depends on your QTH and how you use the tower.
73, Dick, WC1M
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