Cumulus Support

Hi all,

I have been using a Fine Offset from Maplins for nearly 12 months and I’m ready to move to a more accurate (and expensive) weather station. However I have a problem with positioning the station, it is currently in my back garden which can lead to low readings ie highest gust recorded this month 37mph! My preferred location would be at the top of the house gable end, high up and facing south. The Maplins unit requires an annual battery change, something I would find impossible if the unit was on the gable end.

Looking through the forum it seems that the best station is from Davis. I have looked at the various units and like most enthusiasts, look for the finest unit, the Davis Wireless Vantage Pro2 Plus with the 24hr Fan Aspirated Radiation Shield and solar powered – the 6163 unit.

This has prompted a number of questions that I hope you can help me with:
1. Is this unit maintenance free? Once on the gable end, can I just leave it?
2. I upload the data to several weather websites and I like to feel that it is useful and used. Do the UV and Solar sensors fall into this category?
3. Is the fan aspirated radiation shield useful (necessary) in the Midlands?

Doing a web search I found a number of sites selling the 6163 unit but the prices varied enormously!
• Switzerland with Weatherlink Data logger 1261CHF, about £872 + postage
• USA with Weatherlink Data logger $1360, about £868 + postage
• UK with Weatherlink Data logger £1339 with postage free!
Has anyone had experience of buying from overseas? Or is there a retailer that you can recommend?

Help please.

scramblers wrote:1. Is this unit maintenance free? Once on the gable end, can I just leave it?

No weather station is maintenance free; you may need to clean out the rain gauge, for example, and at some point you will definitely need to change the battery. Note that placing the entire unit that high up may give you better wind speed reading, but will compromise your temperature and rainfall readings. A better solution is to put the anemometer high up and leave the ISS itself closer to ground level.

Doing a web search I found a number of sites selling the 6163 unit but the prices varied enormously!
• Switzerland with Weatherlink Data logger 1261CHF, about £872 + postage
• USA with Weatherlink Data logger $1360, about £868 + postage
• UK with Weatherlink Data logger £1339 with postage free!
Has anyone had experience of buying from overseas? Or is there a retailer that you can recommend?

I buy some parts from Archer Trading Post in the US, and have found them very good, but note that if you buy a wireless station from outside the UK, it may not operate at a frequency which is legal in the UK.

Hi John,

I concur with Steve's advice. The only unit that needs to be high up is the anemometer at 33ft. All other sensors (excluding solar/UV) should be placed a few feet above ground and that is how the Davis ISS is designed.

I notice you're looking for the full system including solar and UV sensors. These dramatically increase the price and can only be positioned on the ISS which, if you don't have good horizons, is not ideal. If you're interested in recording sunshine they are not well suited to that task.

You really don't need the 24-hour fan in this country. A good compromise is the daytime fan which is much cheaper and does as good a job. It will also last longer than the 24hr one.

Your best bet would be to buy a separate anemometer transmitter (6332) and a standard wireless VP2 with WeatherLink and the data logger. I bought mine from ProData and can highly recommend them. There are special offers running at present.

The anemometer would be best positioned on your gable end but the transmitter can be positioned much lower. I have located mine above a flat porch roof and access is easy. My anemometer has not required any maintenance in 2.5 years.

The rain gauge does need cleaning several times a year but placed at ground level this is not a problem.

If you are interested in recording sunshine there is a separate thread here where a pilot programme has been very successful. The unit is not yet on sale but again, any unit to record sunshine does need good horizons which inevitably means placing it high up.

John, as both Steve and Ray mentioned, installing most of the ISS (the integrated sensor suite) at (or near) ground level is a better solution - be advised that the anemometer comes with a 40' (12 m) cable - so the ISS and the anemometer can easily be 40' (12 m) apart ... the ISS at ground level and the anemometer at the top of the house gable end (otherwise, there is Ray's solution)...

My Wireless Vantage Pro2 Plus (with 24-Hr fan aspirated radiation shield) was installed some six years ago - none of the batteries have been changed yet (and they appear to still be ok for a while longer). The only maintenance I do, twice-a-year, is to clean the rain collector (inside and out), to gently dust the solar and the UV sensors and the wipe solar panels.

Living on the western coast of Canada, I bought my station from For the Birds Nature Shop (in Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia, CA), a retailer on the east coast of Canada - I bought the additional accessories from Archer Trading Post (in Gainesville, Florida, USA).

Hi the other Ray ,

It must be extremely tempting to consider buying a wireless Davis station from the US or Canada for those of us living in the UK.

But, as you probably know, they operate on a different wireless frequency here to the other side of the pond. I wouldn't put it past the UK customs to confiscate anything that transmitted on an illegal frequency. It could cause problems with other units like mobile phones that have that frequency range reserved for them.

The accessory prices are very attractive!

Hello to you too, the other Ray...

One could always buy the cabled weather station...

Not as great of a range as the wireless weather station - 100' (30 m) for the cabled station versus up to 1,000 ft (300 m) for the wireless station.

That is an option Ray and I considered it myself when looking to keep the costs down (no ane transmitter).

But the benefits of wireless are considerable and the practicalities of running (and protecting) an anemometer cable back to the ISS difficult. Well for me they were!

Indeed, before purchasing the wireless Davis Vantage weather station I had been using a cabled La Crosse for about three to four years - the La Crosse could have been used both cabled or wirelessly but the reliability of the wireless was not that great, even at short distances/ranges - and, from what I have been reading in the forums (here and elsewhere), it appears the transmission range of the new low-priced weather stations, similar to the La Crosse, is still poor at best and the reliability way below acceptable.

I guess I should stop 'bashing' the low-priced weather stations but it has been difficult considering the number of problem people are going through - the low-priced weather stations should not be sold for more than $50 or € 40 and, even at those prices, the importers/distributors would still be making huge profits...

Hi all,

Thank you for all your comments, they have been extremely helpful. It gives me a valuable insight into different ways of achieving the same objective. I will have to sit and think before rushing into such an expensive purchase.

As a result of your postings I have checked the various radio frequencies used by Davis. There is only one frequency used for all of there European models but this is quite different to the USA frequency. The European frequency range is 868.0 to 868.6 MHz; my current Maplins station uses 433 MHz. Does anybody know the allowable range of frequencies for the UK?

One of the other reasons to change the weather station position is that my back garden is surrounded by a triangle of houses and, on the south side, in my neighbour’s garden there are high trees. Over the last year I have noticed that most of the garden is in shade during the winter months yet becomes a suntrap during the summer. Both of which distort the temp and humidity readings. I am hoping that moving the anemometer to an aerial mast above the gable end with the ISS lower down and to the left adjacent to the front gutter will solve my problem.

John, how much sun (such as how many hours) is available on the roof of what I presume could be either your garage or storage area (or is that part of the neighbour's house)?

gemini06720 wrote:John, how much sun (such as how many hours) is available on the roof of what I presume could be either your garage or storage area (or is that part of the neighbour's house)?

Hi Ray,

That is my garage. The photo was taken about 11.30am today and you can see that the garage roof is in total shade. As the year progresses with the sun getting higher then the garage roof gains more hours of sun.

Hi John,

I can't find any references to valid frequencies in the UK but rest assured companies would not be allowed to sell equipment for any country if the frequency was not legal.

I understand your concerns about your garden being a suntrap but your temperatures will be just as valid as those on an official Met Office site. You are recording the temperature in your garden so if it's higher than other nearby sites so be it. My own site is quite sheltered and daytime maxima are around 1C higher than Manchester Airport or Woodford - an official Met Office site. At first it bothered me but I soon recognised it was a folorn task expecting my temps to be the same as an exposed site.

As long as you place the thermometer away from any objects than might cause heating you'll be fine. Over grass is ideal. Over concrete is a disaster. An open location allowing air to circulate is also helpful.

I wish I had a gable-end house. Even though you need to climb a ladder it would be relatively easy to attach an anemometer and sunshine recorder to an aluminium pole attached to the brickwork near the peak. You should get very good wind measurements if you can attach the Davis anemometer up there.

You can see how mine is positioned. The transmitter is below the bathroom window above the porch.

John, is there a location around (near) your home where the sun is shining (on clear day) for more than just a few hours - I cannot remember how many hours of sunshine are needed to recharge the 'supercap' for the ISS or the rechargeable NiCad batteries for the '24-hr fan aspirated radiation shield', but it is certainly more than just a couple of hours.

You might have to install the ISS on the same post as the anemometer, the ISS below the gable and the anemometer above the gable - that means you will have to place a ladder (at least) twice-a-year on the roof of your garage to inspect and clean the components of the ISS...

gemini06720 wrote:John, is there a location around (near) your home where the sun is shining (on clear day) for more than just a few hours - I cannot remember how many hours of sunshine are needed to recharge the 'supercap' for the ISS or the rechargeable NiCad batteries for the '24-hr fan aspirated radiation shield', but it is certainly more than just a couple of hours.

You might have to install the ISS on the same post as the anemometer, the ISS below the gable and the anemometer above the gable - that means you will have to place a ladder (at least) twice-a-year on the roof of your garage to inspect and clean the components of the ISS...

Hi Ray,

As the south facing gable end is the only position that receives the sun all the year round, I've reached the same conclusion as yourself.

I am thinking of erecting the anemometer on a mast at the apex of the gable end triangle and the ISS lower down on the right hand side of the triangle, again on a mast so that it 'peaks' above the slope of the roof. The garage roof is higher at this point, making access to the ISS easier. However, I may have a radiant warming problem as it will be adjacent to and above a black painted soil pipe. It may be a case of trial and error until I find the best position.

scramblers wrote:However, I may have a radiant warming problem as it will be adjacent to and above a black painted soil pipe. It may be a case of trial and error until I find the best position.

John, looking at the picture of your house, the only 'dark' pipe I see is the one at the back - is that the one you are writing about?

My suggestion was to install the wall mounting brackets (which would to hold a galvanized pipe) below the gable (at the center of the house, below the peak of the house) and not near either the front or the back of the house. Here is an example of the wall mounted bracket I had/have in mind - obviously, with a longer pole (which you could possibly buy at a large home supply store such as Home Depot, as we have in North America).

As you wrote, the anemometer should be installed at the top of the mast whereas the ISS should be installed at the bottom of the mast, below the (gable) peak of the roof so the wind does not affect the rain collection.

I know this is not 'THE IDEAL' location for the installation for a weather station sensors (as many will probably point it out to you) - but you have to remember that the data from the station is primarily for your own use and offered freely (at your own expenses) to other people and weather organisations - a station can only be installed as well as the surroundings will allow it...

My station is certainly not installed at/in 'THE IDEAL' location - our house is located on the northern slope of Mount Tzouhalem (Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada - at about 150 metres above sea level) - there are high trees on three sides of the house - the backyard is all trees - the front of the house is about 5 meters above the street level (fairly steep slope) - the roof of the house is about 20 meters above the street level - a 3 metres galvanized pipe is held in place by a tripod bracket well screwed into the peak (gable) of the roof, at the front of the house - the anemometer is attached to the top of the pipe whereas the ISS is attached near the bottom of the pipe, above the top of the tripod, at about 1.5 meters above the peak (gable) of the roof.

Even with sensors not installed at/in THE IDEAL location, the data from my weather station is regularly used by the local radio station, by the local schools, and by numerous residents - as I have written before, my station has been consistently/reliably operating without problem (none, zero) for the past six years - two of the services I proudly offer are (fairly) accurate [link removed] produced by WXSIM (using the data from my station) and [link removed] (using data from the National Weather Service NEXRAD Level III high-resolution Dual Polarization Doppler weather radar of KATX on Camano Island, in the state of Washington, USA).