Pete B wrote:

"KotF" wrote in message
... "Dave Cornwell"
wrote in message
...

-------------------
It's probably best to state a budget because what you can get is
obviously dependent on that. Several of us have what is really the
cheapest PC linked option. This is the Watson W-8681 range badged under
several other names and made in China by Fine Offset.(Often sold by
Maplins and on Ebay (new). Costs about £70 for console, wind, rain,
humidity, temperature and pressure. Connects via USB and comes with
average software but is great with the free (donation ware) Cumulus
software. Don't think there is any Linux software. Latest model costs
about £95 but adds UV solar measurement. It tends to be very accurate if
sited properly as the Cumulus software enables data calibration. Mine has
proved to be reliable for three years with the odd minor hiccup. Dave
http://www.laindonweather.co.uk/

Thanks - I hadn't come across those. I had been prepared to spend a few
hundred, but having seen what's on ebay I think I'll go for one of those...

KotF

It will depend on exactly what level of performance you want though.

I use, as some others on this board do, a Davis VP2 with solar sensor which
gives good results that are virtually indistigushable from those of a local
conventional long standing Stephenson Screen setup about 1/4 of a mile away.
What very slight variations do occasionally show are probably more to do with
real variations in the two locations than the differences between
conventional Stephenson and AWS type screens.

The Davis kit is mostly very good but many people find that the raingauge
under-reads by around 15-20 percent compared to what an adjacent manual
5-inch raingauge measures. That is certainly the case with mine. No doubt
this is partly due to the fact that the Davis raingauge is integral with
the temperature/humidity unit so it has to be mounted a few feet above
the ground.


--
Norman Lynagh
Tideswell, Derbyshire
303m a.s.l.