Weather Station

• Davis Vantage Pro2  (8/13/13)
• Battery backup and UPS backup (uninterruptible power supply)
• Wind speed and direction unit is tower side mounted 35 feet above ground and approx 650' ASL.
• Temperature and humidity sensors are in a radiation shield  10 feet above ground
• Rain gauge is an automatic emptying type
  
  
• Known issues:
• Wind speed may read low due to nearby trees. This is most noticeable in the southerly directions in the summer.
• The weather station is close to the water which moderates the temperatures, especially during westerly winds. This often results in higher temperatures in the winter and lower in the summer than what you would see further inland.

• TPLink TL-MR3020 Router modified with Metreobridge firmware configured into a dedicated weather computer/server
• Protected with a UPS
• Internet - high speed cable

• The weather data is transferred from the Vantage Pro2 to the TL-MR3020 (as of 7/1/16) via the USB interface every 5 seconds
• Approximately every 5 minutes the latest weather data is uploaded to  www.pilor.com 
• The data you see on the internet should be no more than 5 minutes old. Assuming your clock and mine are set for the same time!
• The website is basically my own design using HTML and some Java and as of 8/13/13 a modified PHP template from Saratoga_Weather that provides the local weather data and some of the other webpages

• Part of the site weather is a template design by CarterLake.org with PHP conversion by Saratoga-Weather.org.
  Special thanks go to Kevin Reed at TNET Weather for his work on the original Carterlake templates, and his design for the common website PHP management.
  Special thanks to Mike Challis of Long Beach WA for his wind-rose generator, Theme Switcher and CSS styling help with these templates.
  Special thanks go to Ken True of Saratoga-Weather.org for the AJAX conditions display, dashboard and integration of the TNET Weather common PHP site design for this site.
  Template is originally based on Designs by Haran.

• Pilor, pronounced  "pie lor" is the acronym for PILot  saiLOR ... IMHO
• If you would like to support the Kincardine Amateur Weather  Station we do accept local advertising for a modest  cost. Please click Contact above for information.
• Have a suggestion or comment please Email the Webmaster

History

• Sometime around 1998 we purchased a Radio Shack WX200 weather station to monitor the local weather. The wind anemometer was mounted at the top of a 56' tower. The software only allowed viewing on your home computer.

• Early 2003 I found software available from Andy Kier in Australia that could be used to upload the weather data to a website on the internet.

• With an old Pentium 233 with 128Mb of memory and Windows 95 I was able to construct a simple website and upload the weather to personal webspace available on Kincardine Cable internet. On Oct 11, 2003 we registered our own domain name, pilor.com. Using an ancient 1985 video camera we were able to include a webcam image of Lake Huron on the website. This is how it looked Christmas Day 2003.  

• June of 2004 we began using the new webcams provided by the Kincardine Yacht Club located in the lighthouse.

• June 2008 the website was updated with the new blue pages that you see today. By August 8, 2008 we had 1,000,000 visitors. The computer was upgraded to a P600 with windows XP.

• The website has been continually upgraded over the years and a new Davis Vantage Pro weather station was installed August 13, 2013. At the same time templates from Saratoga Weather replaced Andy Kier's FreeWX software. The old Radio Shack weather station is still operating but not available on the internet.

• July 1, 2016 the XP computer was retired after being used 24/7 for 13 years. Now replaced by a 3" x 3" x 1" router that has been modified into a micro computer using only 1 watt of power.