Davis vs. Oregon Scientific Complete Weather Station

Rain. Sun. Snow. Hail. Davis. Oregon Scientific. What will the new day bring?

Your choice of a Davis weather station or an Oregon Scientific weather station will make the difference. The weather will still be the weather, but you can choose your way of detecting a rainstorm. The trouble is, the Davis weather station and the Oregon Scientific weather station are both complete, with all the accoutrements you'll need. How do you choose one?

If you live in Alaska or in the Pacific Northwest, you need a weather station that you can check indoors without interference. Make sure whichever weather station you choose is not affected by extreme cold and snow. Fortunately, you'll get chill-proof snow-resistant wind sensors (anemometers) and temperature sensors with both the Davis weather station and the Oregon Scientific weather station.

If you do live in a harsh environment, make sure you don't have to climb up on the roof often to maintain your weather equipment. The Oregon Scientific weather station and the Davis weather station have the tripod-mounted equipment option.

Also, decide whether you want a cabled or cable-free weather station. The Davis weather station with cable connections is perfect for metal homes and landscape with multiple obstructions. The Oregon Scientific weather station models are wireless.

Rain. Snow. You know that you're facing both tomorrow, now that you've taken the time to compare wireless weather stations, and cabled ones too. You're prepared for anything!

Talk To Me, Weather Station

You have glaucoma or at the very least need glasses. But you refuse to let it get in the way of your daily activities. If only they didn't make the numbers on your indoor weatehr station so small.

You have options, the same way you can choose to wear bifocals or have Lasik surgery. Two nifty meteorological weatehr station choices for the visually impaired:

1) Talking Wireless Indoor/Outdoor Weather Station
2) Indoor/Outdoor Weather Station with Projection Time and Temp

You can set your Oregon Scientific BAR321HGA Talking Wireless Weather Station to announce the hour and the weather at desired intervals, especially if you're on your own. It's helpful to have another voice in the house other than the TV, the radio and your own off-key singing. The announcement, "8 p.m., 53 degrees, clear skies," or "5 p.m., 43 degrees, thunderstorm coming," will help you stay connected to the weather, especially if you're homebound.

The Lacrosse Wireless Weather Station with Projection Temperature and Time projects the time and temperature onto the ceiling or wall in red letters so you can read the numbers clearly. Just make sure there isn't too much ambient light in the room so you can read the numbers clearly. Set up the indoor weather station receiver to project onto a shadow so you can see the time and temperature clearly.

Your eyesight may be troubling you, but you shouldn't give up your passion for the weather.

Home Weather Stations: Too Complicated?

There's a humorous commercial about a man who's "always wrong" and gets razzed by his office mates about saying that FedEx is a "little pricey". That same hapless young man would undoubtedly say that home weather stations are too complicated and bulky. Not so.

Most home weather stations or personal weather stations, consist of:

--a portable, free-standing or wall monitor
--temperature sensors and probes
--rain gauges and self-emptying rain buckets
--hygrometers
--barometers
--thermometers

Many of the other home weather station instruments are optional, and they're no more complex than your stereo system or personal computer. Setting them up isn't complex, especially if you have an 11-year-old in the house (if not, borrow one.)

So when your resident "Mr. Wrong" sniffs that personal weather stations are too bulky and complex, you can send him a home weather station...by FedEx.

Detecting Dewpoint around Doors

Your frotn and back doors won't open in August, keeping your in-laws out (good) and the kids indoors (bad). Why?

Check your weather station instrument, especially your home monitor unit. A wireless thermometer and hygrometer will detect both the rise in temperature and the accompanying rise in dewpoint. A dewpoint above 60 percent means the in-laws have to pull the door open (your brother-in-law was captain of the wrestling team and looks like Charles Bronson), and a dewpoint of 80 percent means even your father-in-law's long-winded monologues can't coax the door open. Meanwhile, the kids are plotting the Great Escape through the roof.

Adjust your air conditioning and fans before the dewpoint reaches critical. Use your wireless thermometer and hygrometer to track shifts and rises in air moisture so you can calibrate your air conditioner to combat the sticky-door effect. A little WD-40 on the hinges never hurts, either.

Now your in-laws are in for the evening and your kids are outside playing. Just keep monitoring every home weather instrument you have so you never find yourself trapped indoors with your children and your in-laws, or you'll pull a jailbreak worthy of Steve McQueen.

Digital Wireless Temperature Monitors

The kids haven't complained of chills in the pool, but your daughter definitely has the sniffles.

The plants can't talk, but your parsley has wilted.

It's too hot in the greenhouse and too chilly in the pool area. Your wireless weather station isn't keeping up with the conditions inside the house or immediately outside, even though you can tell down to the minute when it's going to rain.

Fortunately, digital wireless weather stations have solutions, namely wireless remote temperature sensors that tell your desktop or wall unit whether the pool is caliente or your kids need sweaters when they get out. Steel-tipped probes sense drops in temperature and send them to the home unit.

Cool Tip: Your sensor needs to be in an area free of obstructions, so don't hide it in your tomato plants or near that poolside replica of the Winged Victory.

When your daughter has the sniffles, you can be sure that she caught it from the germ factory known as school and not because the pool water is the wrong temperature.

Children's Weather Station Kits

Kids today, you think, have everything. Including weather station kits. Why, when I was their age, I had to walk ten miles...sound familiar? It should, you heard it from your parents, who couldn't understand why you had to have that shiny new bicycle.

Even though our kids have a multitude of toy choices, they still like the simple things. It's not always safe to go outside and play, but anything that helps them learn is worthwhile.

You may not be ready for a full home weather station, and you don't have to buy advanced weather station equipment just for your children. There are many excellent junior science weather station kits available--the Discovery Channel Store is always a valuable resource. Or you can ask your children to make a weather station kit and watch what your Marie Curie or Max Planck invents. Who knows, you might be motivated to buy yourself a basic weather station--maybe even shiny chrome, just like that two-wheeler. You've earned it.

Modems and Vantage Pro

You've finally switched from dail-up to cable modem, but no matter which modem you use, you can't get your Vantage Pro to talk to your cable modem. You're trying to track precipitation trends, but hardware/software issues keep raining on your parade.

Check to see that you've done the following:

* Bought the blue Davis Modem Adapter for the Vantage Pro.
* Connected the DataLogger (which downloads the data from your remote unit to your PC) to the modem via the modem adapter
* Made sure all the segments on the LCD screens are lit.
* Configured WeatherLink settings so that they're tuned to the COM port your modem is connected to.
* Entered the phone number, if you're still using dial-up
* If using Virtual Weather System, downloaded the DSL/Cable Modem/LAN version.

When all else fails, or if you just need a break from all this tech frustration, ask your fellow weather loggers and PC weather station users on the Net. After all, you're isolated from the rest of humanity thanks to your technical problems. If your modem and weather station software won't talk to each other, at least you can converse with a human being about your favorite subject: the average yearly rainfall.

Around the Weather, er, Water Cooler

The whole office is talking, and it's not because Anderson in Accounting got a raise when no one else did.

Anderson from Accounting has a stylish modular desktop weather station. What's more, she attached a weather sensor outside the window of her corner office. She always seems to know which way the wind is blowing...literally.

Portable weather stations can dress up the office as well as the home. The attractive Oregon Scientific RMR612HGA Titanium Thermo-Hygrometer with Atomic Clock can also help your company. After all, knowing the weather helps you:

* plan the office party
* know whether shipments and packages will be delayed because of local conditions
* take an educated guess when clients won't patronize your busienss because it's snowing/raining

You might not have gotten a raise, but you could buy yourself a portable weather station. Or you could recommend your office buy a complete weather station. But first you should drop by Anderson's office to congratulate her and to learn more about her desktop weather station. Hey, it beats hanging out around the water cooler listening to the guys from Sales discussing the football scores.

Don't Ignore the Main Weather Unit

Hal 9000 may have been paranoid, but your home weather station main receiver won't revolt if you view soil readings from May to August on your PC or Mac.

Even without homicidal LaCrosse main unit receivers, you shouldn't rely solely on your weather station software. After all, you bought the weather station to get away from those weather displays on your desktop or laptop. There are some things you can't find on the Internet. If you're locked into analyzing weather data on a computer weather station, you'll forget to check outside for:

* That humid damp-shirt feeling, which your hygrometer tells you is the dewpoint rising. But your weather station said you had 10 percent humidity and your WeatherLink software indicates that the humidity will be low in the next month.
* Your garden. Why do the plants look so wilted? You have them on automatic sprinkler system connected to the WeatherLink. Is this a conspiracy?
* The frost damage. Your weather trends analysis said there wouldn't be heavy frost, but the elements have battered your wooden shingles.
* The comfort zones in your house. Isn't it too chilly in here? Your fuel usage analysis said you didn't need to heat your home as much...hmmm.

Relax. You're probably feeling guilty about spending so much time with your nifty new software, which can stream data from several different sensors. Just make sure your home receiver unit doesn't feel lonely.

Home Made Digital Weather Station

You're an expert at setting goals. Your number one goal: setting up a weather station that doesn't take all day.

You have the correct barometric pressure measured so you can calibrate your sensors. Now all you need are sensors. What else do you need for a digital weather station? Keep this basic list handy.

1) Home receiver(s)
2) Remote temperature sensor(s)
3) Barometric pressure sensor
4) Thermo-hygrometer or humidity sensor
5) Wind direction sensor or anemometer
6) Data logger
7) Weather simulation software such as WeatherLink, WeatherHawk, WeatherView 32
8) Adapter to connect data logger with computer
9) Elbow grease
10) Patience
11) Hard work
12) Passion

Now your goal is to sit inside your screened-in porch monitoring the rainfall from your rain collector. Oops, you forgot the rain gauge. Add it to your to-do list, and you can safely predict a well-built home made weather station.

I Just Want to Take Your Temperature

Weather stations can tell you the phases of the moon for the next week. You don't want to know when the sun will rise and set. You've got your bedtime and morning routine down to a science. The sun takes cues from you. Or you simply want to check the temperature in the newly renovated kitchen and bathroom to make sure the contractor doesn't leave holes.

When you compare wireless weather stations, don't forget to ask about temperature sensors. An Oregon Scientific weather center can be as simple as a wireless indoor/outdoor thermometer that you can set to monitor heat leaks in the bathroom and a three-degree boost in temperature in the kitchen--this happened when you weren't even cooking, so you know something odd is afoot.

Or you just want to monitor the temperature in one location, basic indoor temperature. The LaCrosse Alarm Clock (which you don't need because you always get up at 6:01 a.m. anyway) can take the place of a full LaCrosse weather station as far as you're concerned. Or if you want to monitor outdoor temp too, you can buy a LaCrosse indoor/outdoor thermometer. True, you'll receive rain forecasts too, but at least you'll avoid the sun/moon information.

After all, if your contractor botches the roof job, you'll learn more about sunset and moonrise than you ever wanted.