A Weather Station and a new Subaru

This past Saturday’s impromptu work party saw Matt Paine, Ed Faits, and myself on the Hill to see how everything was wintering over. Matt picked me up in Northampton in his shiny new Subaru Outback, a great car with road comfort and AHC (Arunah Hill Clearance). He wasn’t only excited to be driving his new wheels, but also because this was the first time in quite a while he had driven his own car to the Hill. His old Camry (namely the exhaust flex pipe below the header) didn’t get along to well with the road in recent visits. For me it was nice to ride and enjoy the scenery as I spend lots of time behind the wheel. When we arrived around noon, the road had been cleared enough for 4WD and AWD vehicles to make it into a small clearing in the lower parking lot. Of course I was there egg Matt on in taking his shiny new car through the snow and slush to the lower lot…..hey, it wouldn’t be my towing bill!

On went my snowshoes, I grabbed my camera and Matt and I started up the road. Watching Matt walk fairly easily in his boots on the already compressed, wet snow I realized I could’ve probably left the snowshoes behind. The walk up the road was quite easy, there were some tracks from recent visitors and the fog had set in over the Hill, making for some neat photographs as the Gaertner and the Club House emerged into view.

At the Club House, Matt checked out the radio finding all had survived the brute of winter. Ed arrived just a few minutes later with a LaCrosse Weather Station in hand, donated to the Hill by the Faits Family. Ed had already mounted the tipping bucket rain gauge and thermo-hygrometer to a small wooden stand for mounting in an appropriate place. Ed and Matt decided to mount the solar powered anemometer/transmitter to the amateur radio antenna mast on the Club House. Up went Matt while Ed steadied the ladder and I took pictures and offered “positive” encouragement…..you know like “don’t worry if you fall, the snow is deep!” But wait, no one brought the appropriate tools to fasten said hardware to the mast. Matt was headed back down the Hill for his Leatherman which he “forgot” in his car. I personally think he was having withdrawals and needed to see the Outback again. Ed and I put batteries in the wall unit, rain gauge, and thermo-hygrometer sensor. Matt returned from his Subaru withdrawal pilgrimage with his Leatherman to finish mounting the anemometer. Does anyone have any idea how long it takes 3 nerdy Arunah Hill members (with telescopes, radio licenses, and “extensive” computer skills) to figure out how to setup a lousy wireless weather station? 1 hour, 8 soft resets, 4 remove-the-batteries resets, downloading the quick setup guide on my iphone, and 3 cycles of wondering what the heck “res in 55, 54, 53….” meant is about what it takes! It’s no wonder I can even post this blog entry.

All sensors communicated successfully with the base unit now mounted in the Club House, although the anemometer communication was intermittent. We think it was because of its battery not being fully charged under a cloudy sky….I’m sure it will be operating again on our next visit after a sunny day or two. The rain gauge and thermo-hygrometer were temporarily mounted on the north side of the Gaertner until a future work day. I will be constructing a fold down mast similar to the one for my 2 meter amateur radio install at my house for all the weather instruments. More on that later. In the meantime, don’t touch the buttons on the wall unit if you visit, lest you deal with the dreaded “res in” countdown to, well, we still don’t know what.
With the weather station installed and working, the fog cleared, and Matt having withdrawals again we all walked down to the lower lot….chit chatting about the upcoming Spring, what is bound to be a VERY wet melt season on the road, and how we might improve the road for the upcoming summer.

Thanks again to the Faits Family for the Weather Station!

Kevin.