Hi,

I'm new here, and to be honest I'm not really a weathery-type of
person - it is a means to an end for me being a kitesurfer. However, I
am a gadget man and my local club is in need of a bit of kit for the
beach - a completely remote station that can be 'dialed into' to get
current wind speed and direction. The problem is that our beach,
although well known and popular, had no buildings or phone lines or
power lines anywhere around.
So my idea was to build a station from scratch - seeing as I cant find
one commercially available. Cobble together all the usual bits but
have it communicate by mobile. Then I figured someone else must have
done it first, and this might be the best place to look.
Any ideas?

Cheers
James

- And on 9 Jun 2004 02:34:50 -0700, it was spake thus said in message (CoyoteBoy):

Hi,

I'm new here, and to be honest I'm not really a weathery-type of
person - it is a means to an end for me being a kitesurfer. However, I
am a gadget man and my local club is in need of a bit of kit for the
beach - a completely remote station that can be 'dialed into' to get
current wind speed and direction. The problem is that our beach,
although well known and popular, had no buildings or phone lines or
power lines anywhere around.
So my idea was to build a station from scratch - seeing as I cant find
one commercially available. Cobble together all the usual bits but
have it communicate by mobile. Then I figured someone else must have
done it first, and this might be the best place to look.
Any ideas?

Cheers
James

Where about's are you James ?

There are lots of sites already on the net that give this sort of info...
http://www.xcweather.net/ works well
http://www.wunderground.com/global/UK.html is good too

Sorry I can't help the other way...
--
Nick in Northallerton
Also nickw7coc on both Yahoo Messenger & on MSN Messenger
And http://www.whelan.me.uk

Another I've just thought of...
http://www.metcheck.com/willitrain/
--
Nick in Northallerton
Also nickw7coc on both Yahoo Messenger & on MSN Messenger
And http://www.whelan.me.uk

On 9 Jun 2004 02:34:50 -0700, CoyoteBoy wrote:

So my idea was to build a station from scratch - seeing as I cant
find one commercially available.

I don't think you can have dug deep enough, Tried looking at the Davis
site or any of the other AWS manufacturers

... have it communicate by mobile. Then I figured someone else must
have done it first,

They most certainly have, though it might be more dial out to upload
the data to somewhere accessable via the net rather than dial in.

--
Cheers
Dave. pam is missing e-mail

On Wed, 09 Jun 2004 22:43:27 +0100 (BST), "Dave Liquorice"
wrote:

... have it communicate by mobile. Then I figured someone else must
have done it first,

They most certainly have, though it might be more dial out to upload
the data to somewhere accessable via the net rather than dial in.

Indeed, but it's usually set up to dial in to the AWS because the
serial port on the remote GSM modem (or whatever) needs to be
connected directly to the data logger and there's no other
intelligence available to dial out.

This sort of remote configuration is fairly straightforward nowadays
but has 3 catches:

The GSM modem is a significant cost over and above the cost of the
AWS;

You need to make some arrangements for power at the remote site. This
is easy for the AWS but the GSM modems can use significant power. Not
necessarily a showstopper but another factor to be dealt with;

In an empty but still public area there may well be issues of eg
overnight security for the AWS kit;

John Dann
www.weatherstations.co.uk (major update now online)