The Story of Spreydon Weather (or) Simon Ballantyne's Weather Page on http://www.tokaanuskihire.co.nz/simon/spreydonweather.htm (LOCATION CHANGE - in March 2003, the station was relocated eight kilometres to the SW to Westlake, Halswell, Christchurch.) UPDATED 22ND MARCH 2004 STATION CLOSED DOWN 18 DECEMBER 2007 In February 2001 on the net I came across a weather page in Lower Hutt at http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/lfduflou/Silverstreamweather.htm  and at once I knew this was what I had been hankering after for a long time. A quick Email response from its owner Leo Duflou told me two things: - a) that the Dick Smith WM 918 electronic weather station was affordable having come down in price from $699 to $599 and then during a March special at $499; and b) that NZ software to interface a PC programme from the WM 918 was available at a reasonable price.   First things first so I made my purchase of the WM 918 and for the first time in my life put the package, except for the Manual, away for a ten days while I devoured the web for information concerning the unit, cable lengths, its pitfalls and its wonders. So on the 10th March I found that mounting the wind direction vane and its associated annenometer, the rain gauge, and the outdoor temp/humidity sensor was true to the label, "easy to install"! Inside my house the base unit loaded up without trouble and began at once to display on a large LCD panel all the weather parameters one can think of, but only as they were chosen via an icon bar at the top of the display.   The WM 918 has a serial data output plug and this was coupled by a long 11metre serial cable to my P.C. The software provided with the unit wasn't worth a dime so from Brian Hamilton's web site Weather Display I downloaded his excellent programme. I found Brian very helpful in setting up the software and as well he invited me to use his server as my web page host. I can get a number of permutations of screens and graphs on my PC and what you see on spreydonweather is only a small part of the software's capability.   The WM 918 and my PC 'talk' to each other every second, so readings and averages are the result of almost real time computations. My PC then uploads to the server about eight times a day, especially during the mornings so that CMYC members can see the trends for their day's sailing.  LEFT: Wind vane and Rain Gauge atop our nearly flat roofed home at Westlake. [Click on photo for larger picture]     RIGHT: Temperature and Humidity sensor on South wall (does get sun strike for two or three weeks mid summer)   The WM 918 is a nice tidy unit and should be operating for some years, I hope! Maybe a new reed switch in the annenometer in a couple of years and as well, a bit of spider proofing from time to time. Oh yes, and a slightly increased Internet Server bill!