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For basic weather conditions, I recently aquired a personal weather station that I have setup at my home near Terril, Iowa. The station is a LaCrosse brand, WS2317U, it features measurements for temperature/moisture, wind & wind direction as well as a tipping bucket rain gauge that provides the current conditions from my house in anywhere from 30 second to 2 minute updates. I am located in between several airport ASOS stations, right on the border of the Sioux Falls and Des Moines NWS offices. As you may know, you can view updates from my station on the homepage of my website, as well as detailed history and tendencies of the weather on Wunderground. I also plan on having the station become a part of the NOAA CWOP program, Citizen Weather Observer Program, thus providing my weather information with the NWS offices for them to use. Current pages that have my personal weather station date on them include:
Iowa Chaser Homepage
My CWOP Homepage
Wunderground
As for other equipment that I have, I have a '99 Jeep Grand Cherokee that I drive during daily life and for chasing. It is setup with a Yaseu-2800 ham radio as well as a computer desk that has been configured for holding my laptop. I am a fan of the Dell line of laptops, both of my laptops have been Dell's; currently using the Inspiron 1501 with Vista. If you want my opinion on the Vista OS, let me know, but for the most part I believe it is okay as long as the computer can handle it. The laptop has several programs that I use during chasing, including Delorme GPS & Street Atlas as well as probably the best radar program that is available for personal use, the Gibson Ridge product line. Currently I have both GRLevel3 and GRLevel2 for radar updates while I have internet access on the road.
My camera equipment is likely the pride of the equipment page, I own a Canon XTi with two Sigma lenses. The Sigma 17-70 lens which several say can go up against the Canon L lens line; Also the Sigma 70-300 DG APO lens that is quite a decent zoom lens for the price. I've added on a battery grip to give me longer life when outdoors and on the road as well as the nice feature of a vertical shutter release. I'm likely going to be adding several additions to my arsenal of photography as I start-up a part time business, Jayson Prentice Photography. |
