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GUILFORD
COUNTY
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Training
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Thanks to Jon Matlock, W4WX, of Guilford County Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) for heading up this project! Jon came up with the idea to install Peet Bros. Ultimeter 2000 Weather Stations throughout our area to provide accurate, time value weather data for the Emergency Services/Public Safety Community, the National Weather Service, local broadcast media outlets, and the Amateur Radio/Skywarn groups. Greensboro-Guilford County Emergency Management initially funded this project (five weather stations) and has assisted with the installation process There are two options to view the ARES/EM Weather Network using your computer (Mac or PC). You can download the Automatic Position Reporting System (APRS) software at one of these locations: APRS Page or Tucson Amateur Packet Radiothen connect to the Internet. Or you can view the Weather Network directly at one of these location Steve Dimse's APRS page Keith Sproul's APRS page. For more information on the weather stations, visit the Peet Bros. web siteSome new software is being tested to work with the Weather Network: UI-View. For more information, check out their website at http://www.uiview.com/. Additionally, our information can be found on these Internet sites: NCAPRSWXNET and Weather Undergroup. The basic design of the ARES/EM Weather Network is fairly simple. We have installed Peet Bros. Ultimeter 2000 (U2k) Weather Stations throughout the area. These stations monitor temperature, humidity, dew point, wind speed (+gust) and direction, barometric pressure, and precipitation. Alarms can be set on within the station configuration as well as the APRS software for a variety of criteria. The weather stations send a comprehensive data report every 5 minutes on the APRS network. In 2002-03 some of the weather stations began uploading data usingWeather Display to personal web pages that the Guilford ARES Website has been linked. We chose the Peet Bros. U2k because this particular unit can be connected directly to a TNC for remote applications where the use of a computer (and the APRS software) would not be practical. The U2k components also include heated sensors and rain gauges to prevent freezing during the wintry precipitation events. using the Win or Mac APRS software, a wide variety of weather stations can be used, but we can not provide information on any accept the Peet. Many of the stations have become inactive due to equipment problems and lack of funds to keep the project funded on an ongoing basis. If you would like to see this continued, please contakc the Guilford County EC and let him know of your interest. |
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