N4DBM-2 is a weather station reporting into the APRS network every five minutes with latest weather conditions including temperature, dew point, relative humidity, wind speed and direction, barometric pressure and rainfall accumulation. The weather data is monitored by a quality control program (see link above) and is given an identifier as "AS593" by the citizen weather program. This station also transmits weather data over the air on 144.390 MHz one-hop via a wide digipeater (usually W4LBT-9) once every fifteen minutes in the event that the internet connection should fail, weather data can still be fed into the APRS network. We are using a Peet Brothers Ultimeter 2100 weather station with a "pro" anemometer and a tipping bucket rain gauge. The PC is a late 90's Gateway Pentium running UI-View 32 with a Road Runner 768 K internet connection. All items are powered by a battery backup system which will last 24 hours.

The Peet Brothers Company manufactures an excellent line of weather observation equipment. The customer service is excellent also. I had a humidity sensor that once gave problems, and the company sent a new sensor element directly to me within two days absolutely free. I have never had any experience with other brands of weather equipment, I am sure all have their advantages. The Peet Ultimeters have an advantage over others because they can plug directly into a compatible TNC (or Byonics WX-Track) and a radio, there is no need to run a full computer to report remote weather condiitons into the APRS network.

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