Hi
I have a oregon scientific weather station thingy, showing fluffy
cloud/ air pressure/ temperature from four areas and a clock.
For some time i have wanted to place sensor number 1
further down the garden away from all trees and "heat traps".
The annoying thing was, whenever i fixed the sensor more
than 60 feet from the house it wouldn't communicate with its base
station.

Now the unit is out of warranty, so i put my G7 radio ham cap on
and opened the main unit up.

Inside is a very simple uhf receiver circuit, with a short length of wire
running from the "coil" towards the top of the unit, then back down the
other side....this is a compromise. (They made it fit).
I have basically unclipped the aerial wire from the case and have passed it
through the top .... then rescrewed the back on.
Now there is 20cms of wire showing out of the top of the unit (mine
is wall mounted).
And best thing of all ... the range is much improved.
I can place sensor one in the boot of my car out on the road
and it still displays on the unit ... and 200 feet down the garden is
easy peesey now.

Tips for any of you wanting to do this simple modification:

If you can't remove the back from your weather station ... try removing
the plastic feet ... there are more screws under the 4 pads.

Don't increase the length of the aerial wire ... like a car alarms aerial
wire, it
is cut to a length which provides optimum reception on the frequency
in use.
If you increase the length it will resonate at a much lower frequency.......
say 153mhz ... a frequency range which is populated with high power radio
pager transmitters in every town.
These can de-sensitise the "simple" receiver quite easily.

And if you attach a 102 foot cable ... you will probably suffer an attack
of the russian woodpecker. (Its gone now though).

Hope this helps ... i would imagine all of the oregon scientific weather
stations
use similar "internals" ... maybe the more slimline models curl up the
1/4 wave aerial even more.


--
Regards
SDD

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