Packet Radio
And Weather Reporting — They’re Perfect Together
by Ray Jacob, KB2ZPE <kb2zpe@arrl.net>
More Reason To Get That Ticket:
Weather Reporting!
Located in the corner of one of Hamvention’s exhibitor rooms can be found the Peet Brothers booth. For me, one of the joys of this great hamfest is the chance to check out the latest weather-wares available for inspection at their display. Neatly mounted on specially built PVC brackets, a wind-vane stirs atop a spinning anemometer excited by the gentle breeze from a small fan. A desktop LCD unit flashes the temperature, then humidity, then wind speed, while its compass shows the direction of the breeze. Your attention is grabbed by a sleek wall-mounted display with bright red digits visible from across the room. One glance tells you everything about the weather. There are self-emptying rain gauges, and software with colorful onscreen dials and graphs. This is big-time, affordable weather monitoring used by local municipalities and home observers alike. It looks so cool, it always made me wonder, “How can I make this fit into my ham radio hobby?”
My long-standing interest in computers drives me to try any radio mode that involves a PC. So, when I read about APRS (Automatic Position Reporting System), I got the software, configured my station, and gave it a go. “Fascinating,” I thought, as APRS stations began to dot the map displayed on my computer monitor.
Figure 1. APRS fixed weather station.
Figure 2. Basic network topology.