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Vantage Pro2 Instrument Siting

Located near Chesterfield in North Derbyshire. The weather station has some mature lime trees ( >50ft) surrounding it therefore the anemometer was sited on the roof atop a 6ft mast which results in quite accurate wind speeds and direction. A 30ft. cable from the anemometer leads to the ISS fastened to a tripod which is secured to our garage roof . The temperature and humidity sensors are housed in a Davis Instruments fan aspirated radiation shield. Rain gauge is attached to the top of the tripod and is well clear of the nearby trees. The ISS receives power from the solar panel which faces due south.

My display console is in our first floor house approximately 40ft from the ISS unit. There are at least 3 walls between the console and the ISS unit and the wireless transmission is perfect. My home wireless network did not affect reception either.

My recent addition has been a weather satellite receiving system. This consists of a Triax 88cm dish, a Technisat SkyStar USB receiver plus software and key that allows access to the weather data from Hotbird. The total price was approx. £850 and all the equipment and software was supplied through Timestep. Service was outstanding and the manual for setting everything up was so easy to follow. The whole system works flawlessly and I recommend them highly.
After deliberating for a year or more I decided to make the plunge and buy a weather station. I researched several stations through comments raised in different forums and the Davis Vantage Pro2 wireless looked the best one for me.I purchased it from the Weather Front shop based in Eastbourne. The only problem was that some of the readings on the console were not perfect. The service from the Weather Shop was excellent, and I soon had a replacement sent to me.

Soon after, I installed a Boltek PCI Stormtracker Lightning Detection System in conjunction with Nexstorm software. This tool is proving very effective and will pick up lightning strikes 300 miles away. I purchased my equipment from Meteoroligica Weather Superstore. Once again I had excellent service.

Boltek Lightning Detector Instrument Siting

The antenna is mounted on a wooden rafter in the attic. Make sure that there are no metal objects nearby that will effect the reception. The antenna faces north which means the computer screen map is set correctly. A USB cable attached to the antenna runs to the PCI card in my computer Our roof is made of concrete tiles and the reception is very good.

Timestep Satellite System Siting

The satellite dish was fastened securely to our south house wall and the LNB was set up facing Hotbird at 13˚ east. The coaxial cable from the LNB connects to the Technisat receiver positioned next to my computer. The DBLite weather software was installed and the final step was to register with eumetsat which allowed me to access weather information from Hotbird. The registration was done through Timestep and within 3 weeks I had the software and key which allowed me this access. An added bonus was that televison broadcasts can be received through Hotbird as well.