[Xastir] weather station

[Bruce W. Martin, KQ4TV]

I have resisted so far but I feel compelled to chime in on this  
discussion.
About 12-13 years ago I purchased a Peet Bros. Ultimeter II station  
at Dayton. I don't remember the exact cost but I think it was about  
$300. Pretty pricey, particularly considering my erratic employment  
at the time. I set it up and it worked like a charm. There was plenty  
of info on their web site for interfacing the sensors to TNCs or  
computers and an email or call was helpful and friendly. Over the  
years I have moved a couple of times and set up the sensors a few  
more. Along the line one of the cups on the wind sensor broke (I  
suspect UV degradation) but was able to order replacements for this  
10 year old sensor. I had a couple of issues with the Rain sensor and  
it has finally failed and I have not been able to bring it back to  
life. I suspect it is other than the sensor itself. I built a  
"Pagoda" radiation shield for the Temp sensor about 5 years ago and  
the UV is starting to get to it. Funny that half the bowls are fading  
and the others don't seem to have changed. I will be interested in  
Gerry's reply about the radiation shield.

I purchased a Lacrosse unit from Sam's Club a year ago. At $100 it  
seemed a decent deal.
Wrong, nothing worked well. The Temp was always 5 deg. different than  
what was being reported by my Ultimeter II which was usually within a  
degree of what the NWS station 2 miles away was reporting.  
Unfortunatly that 5 degree difference was sometimes higher and  
sometimes lower and no rhyme or reason. The Rain gauge was wildly  
erratic reporting flooding rain on the driest days.

After performing some maintenance on my antennas one day I was  
cranking up the tower and missed that the wires leading to both the  
Peet and Lacrosse Wind sensors had caught on a support. THWAK, both  
wires broke.  One day I will fix one of them. Shortly thereafter the  
Lacrosse unit quit giving any reading at all from the remote sensors.

I keep looking at possible replacements and have been eyeing the AAG- 
Dallas one-wire units. I would like to put something up at a couple  
of digi sites.

I want a new home station but I want to have one set of sensors that  
will show up on displays in the Bedroom, Kitchen, Living Room and Ham  
Shack as well as interface with Opentracker or Xastir or both. I have  
looked at both Peet and Davis and can get most done with either one  
but not everything and it would cost about $1000+ to do it.

So I keep reading and waiting and one day will try to repair my  
existing units.

Bruce

-- 
Bruce W. Martin, KQ4TV
Trustee for NT4UX
Nashville Linux User Group - Amateur Radio- Special Interest Group
NLUG-AR-SIG