There seems to be a lot of interest in personal weather stations among ham radio ops. I started my own a little over a year ago after researching what was out there, equipment wise, and I did so thinking it would be interesting to see trends over time here at my own QTH.

What I didn’t realize at the time was how much goes on behind the scenes regarding the data flow of weather info for those stations that are tied to computers with an always-on internet connection. I learned about all that after getting set up and was/am amazed at what occurs without my having to do anything to enable it other than allowing my data to go out into the ether.

I’ll describe it in brief here, and provide relevant links to more detailed info for those considering a similar set-up.

For the record, I have a Davis Vantage Pro II with a USB connection to my computer. It comes with its own software for local presentation of graphical data, charts, etc on your own computer. But instead of that program, I’m running Virtual Weather Station which provides far more options in how and which data is presented. It also allows me to upload my selected graphs to a page on my website.

And it has a free add-on program called VWSaprs that runs in the background and uploads your weather station’s data to the APRS network.

If I didn’t have a 24/7 internet connection, I could feed my weather station’s data to a 2m FM radio tuned to 144.390 MHz and get onto the APRS network that way. To control and convert weather data to audio for the 2m rig, I’d use one of these or one of these or something similarly inexpensive.

Either method gets your weather data onto the APRS network and that’s where the magic begins. By magic, I mean that you are not only sharing your info but are allowing it to be smoothed, compared, evaluated and rated.

This is important for two reasons: it provides you with info regarding the proper siting of your weather station and it provides external weather entities (NOAA, MADIS, Wunderground.com, etc) with an additional source to use for their purposes.

Furthermore, each of these users of weather data provides their own way for you to see how your data compares to what they believe is the correct data for your area and time. By data, I’m talking primarily about temperature, barometric pressure, rainfall and dew point/humidity.

Here is a diagram of the data flow that results simply from you putting your wx data onto the APRS network using either method mentioned above:

The presence of your own station’s dataflow throughout this system can be seen at each step along the way, often accompanied by quality checks and other comparative data derived from other sources. Here’s mine at various steps along the way:

FindU - Wx Quality Reporter – MesoNet or, more easily, here.

Keep in mind that I didn’t do anything to make those links occur – they are simply the result of having data go onto the network either via 2m FM or regular automated uploads to the APRS network.

If you’re considering setting up a personal weather station, this page is required reading. So is this .

Have fun.

.

.

Comments are closed