La Crosse Technologies manufactures a very complete W.W.Station; the WS2310 is the one I use.
This type of devices are very suitable for radio amateur stations.
It provides a lot of usefull detailed information such as temperature (outdoor/indoor), pressure, weather tendency, humidity, rain precipitation and many other info. But amond all those data, we put special attention on wind direction and wind speed. Information which can be crutial to yagi users when weather turns hostile or wind increases its speed.
Also another interesting feature is the fact that you can plug the control unit to your PC and install a very simple software from where you can manage the Weather Station.
It also permmits you to set up different alarms to inform users of rapid or big changes in certain weather parameters.
The installation is also very easy and it does not require any special tool, just a regular screwdriver.
When setting up the wind sensor, you just have to find a clear location for correct wing readings. Also the Thermo-Hidro sensor should be located somewhere away from rain and direct sunlight; otherwise, temperature readings and humidity data would not be accurate.
The main control unit should be located in your shack, close to the operating place from where you can easily look at the information displayed on the screen. A good point is that the outdoor sensors do not have to be connected to the main control unit, in fact the main control unit can stand by itself or if you have PC you can connect it to your PC (but not necesarily).
All data received by the wind and rainfall sensors are transmitted through cables and gathered in the Thermo-Hydro sensor which is also located outside the building too. From this sensor, data is transmitted to the control unit via radio 433Mhz, so there is no need to connect this final sensor with the control unit located inside the building. (it just require battery replacement every month for correct functioning).
Besides these two important points, just connect all cables as described on the manual, energize all unit with regular batteries and you are ready to read the weather.
Finally, if you are not going to connect main control unit to your PC, just make sure that distance from thermo-hydro sensor to control unit is not very long otherwise data transmission would be defective.
From my experience of 5 months, once you set up one of this devices in your shack, you become dependent on it. I surely suggest this weather station or any other with similar features. It certainly can save your antennas from being seriously damaged. It is a useful investment.
Regards
Carlos 30AT397
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