For the past few weeks I have been playing with the new Davis Instruments Vantage Pro 2 Weather Station $400 and up). Available in wired and wireless models, the Vantage Pro reports on wind, temperature, rainfall, and barometric pressure in a variety of formats. Optional sensors will track solar radiation, soil temperature, leaf transpiration, and other specialized metrics. Anything you are likely to want to know about the weather is available at the touch of a button on the display console, as well as recent weather history.

To say I am very pleased with the testing so far would be an understatement. Yes, this unit costs more than other weather stations. but the workmanship is excellent and the options numerous. I mounted the wireless sensor unit on a mast attached to the top of my house, where it is out of the house's wind shadow. Mounting was easy, although climbing my steep, concrete tile roof was a tad treacherous.

The large LCD display console traveled around the house and other to the neighbors--thanks to the claimed 1,000-foot wireless range--before setting next to a desktop PC. It won't stay there, but right now I need to be able to connect a USB cable to the data recorder (an add-on for the console) so my weather data can be shared with the National Weather Service and posting it to a couple of Web sites. My plan is to replace the console with a specialized receiver and a streaming data card, allowing my data to be sent to the NWS over the amateur (ham) radio packet data network.

If you want to see the sample weather page that Davis provides (it is fully configurable, I just haven't) visit www.tracyweather.com. I created this site to share weather with my neighbors. My weather is also available via the packet data network at FindU.com. (N5FDL is my ham call sign).

I am planning to write a long review of the Vantage Pro 2 but have already invested so much time in the project that I wanted to show you it's first fruits--the web pages.