I figured I wouldn’t have the hardware I needed to mount that new weather station Big Brother sent me, so I didn’t plan the job till tomorrow afternoon after the Monday water run. But first I had to figure out what I’d need, so yesterday I dragged home a length of old iron well pipe…
…and ensured that the mounting hardware that came with the weather station would work with the pipe, which it would. Rummaged around for some 1 1/2″ mounting clamps, and for a wonder I had some.
So this morning I put everything together according to the instructions in the unusually good manual and dragged the transmitter out past the woodshed to answer one big question…
…which was whether the receiver would be able to pick up the signal if I mounted it where the old thermometer goes, on the wall of the main cabin next to the voltmeter. And…
…it turned out it worked great.
This having turned into an unusually pleasant day, there was no reason not to get right to work before the weather changed its mind.
I wanted to mount the pipe on one of the woodshed’s 4X4 poles, which required a slight modification to the roofing…
That turned into less work than I feared. I laboriously dragged the pipe up the slope till I could lean it on the shed, then climbed a ladder and tightly mounted the transmitter to the pole.
Then I heaved and pried till I got the pole vertical and clamped it down. And with a 20′ pipe…
…that’s what it looks like. I’ve a sinking feeling it’ll last and work just fine until the very first good overhead thunderstorm. But that could be pessimistic; lots of wind generators around here lasted years before the lightning got them.
One thing I do need from the hardware store tomorrow – the receiver wants small-head screws for wall mounting and I can’t find any. Since that issue comes up from time to time, somewhere I must have a bunch of them.
Normally you mount those about 6 feet high.
I dunno about 6′, but I would normally consider 20′ a bit excessive. I stuck with that because cutting one of those pipes might be possible but would certainly be a colossal pain in the ass – and also because getting clean wind down in my hollow is always going to be a challenge.
20 feet… you know that passive cell relay you’ve got?
Weather Underground says 4 feet distance for every foot of height from the nearest tree(s),, 5 feet above the surface (unpaved) for temperature and at least 7 ft above surrounding obstructions (33 feet above ground if possible) for wind. I’d say you have a pretty good setup. You can register your station with them for free to get long term storage of your weather trends. The web site only stores external readings so you can’t get long term inside numbers.
Hey, on a side note, I was reading some of your old posts and wondering whatever happened to neighbor(?) ‘Jay’ from this post: http://joelsgulch.com/oh-dear-heres-more-neighbor-trouble/
Did he just disappear and move on to other locales to annoy, or did he just …ahem…’disappear’?
As far as I know he’s still around. Haven’t heard any stories about him lately though.
Any chance that pole will attract lightning to your woodshed? The weather station looks really nice!
Hmmm….that weather station appears to report solar data, as in “sunlight intensity.” No clue how it’s calibrated, but I wonder if those data could be useful in tracking performance of the solar panels. A divergence, at some undetermined future point, might indicate deterioration of panel efficiency or other factors useful for solar electric operations.
Will you put that online like these guys:
https://www.wunderground.com/dashboard/pws/KFLPORTS23?cm_ven=localwx_pwsdash
so we can see what’s up out there whenever we want?
}:-]
Mark: Never gonna happen.
Cool. Only unsolicited suggestion I’d make would be for WAY more secure attachment of the pipe to the shed post, as high as possible. Wind load can be deceiving.
What Kentucky said, especially if that pipe isn’t post-holed into the ground.
Completely off topic but it gave me a belly laugh …
AS I was reading my news feed, I thought I clicked here and was looking for my Desert HErmit Adventures fix … so imagine my surprise as I’m quick skimming the following in a gruff hermit voice I’ve assumed is Joel’s … 😉
I SWEAR this is not some clever SEO link …
https://kk.org/cooltools/extra-pure-anhydrous-lanolin/
On the Reader, all the formatting is the same so it took me a moment of dissonance and then I went back and read it in Desert Hermit Curmudgeon on purpose.