Have Weather Station Will Travel

We infrequently have weather information, primarily wind speed, available at our launches. I own a wireless weather station that I've not been using much at home and decided that I'd see about arranging so I could transport it to the launch site and set it up. On Friday I picked up the hardware I would need to implement this decision and today I built it. I took a 56" length of 1010 rail that I acquired at a local recycling store, along with some accompanying hardware, and built a support structure I can attach to my Yakima roof rack system. I cut the 1010 rail into 36", 12", and 8" sections. I used the hardware to connect the 8" section at right angles to the 36" section. This forms the base portion, with 2.5" long, 1/4" carriage screws slid into both ends of the 36" and the end of the 8" section. These screws pass through clips borrowed from my bike rack to mount the base to the Yakima round bars. The 12" section is then mounted vertically, at right angles to both of the base sections. I used hose clamps to mount a 10' length of conduit to the 12" upright 1010 rail. The wind vane/anemometer of the weather station is mounted to the top of the conduit.

I assembled the support structure and mounted it on the car. Everything worked as planned. I'll probably mount the weather station's transmitter, which includes barometer, temperature, and relative humidity sensors, on the 1010 rail, but for today I just set it on top of the rail. After I had the system set up I went in the house to collect the receiver/display. Even in my office it was displaying the wind speed and direction, so I expect we'll be able to place the display on the LCO table and have it work, as I hope to do.

Presently I'm using a steel conduit. I had thought it was aluminum until I went to put it on top of the support. If I can locate an aluminum one I'll probably replace it in order to make the system easier to erect.

I also realized that I had to solve how to transport the conduit, since it won't fit in the car. That was easily solved though by using the hose clamps to fasten it along the 36" section of 1010 rail. We will need to be careful about opening the trunk of the car while the conduit is in this position. I think I'd better come up with some foam padding for the end of it, just in case.

Since photos provide the best explanation...


Photo Album: 2011-05-28, Have Weatherstation Will Travel