KD8FWV

Well it has been a long time since I have posted anything to my blog.  Things have been very busy, and I am very excited about the updates to www.redfieldweather.com that are coming.  One of the big things I am waiting for is my hosting provider to start support ASP.NET 4.0.  I am using the new framework in my site and I am adding Silverlight (www.silverlight.net).  I am very excited about what I am doing with Silverlight.  I am working on some cool user controls.  I do plan on making the Silverlight controls I have created freely available. 

Here is an example of what my current conditions screen is going to look like.

My plan is to integrate weather alerts/warning for the area as well as forecasts.  I am also thinking about using Bing maps (maps.bing.com) and displaying the lighting data.  I would love to find a good source to weather radar images I could overlay on Bing maps, but I don’t know of one.

I am also planning on releasing a Windows Phone 7 (www.windowsphone7.com) application near or at release.  It just depends on how mature the SDK for it is before release and how much time I have.  With these Silverlight controls I have created for my website it should be really easy for me to get a Windows Phone 7 application out as they can share a lot of the same code.

Well that is it for know, but I hope to be posting more as this project moves on.  I am very excited about Silverlight and Windows Phone 7.

I have become a real big weather buff over the last couple of years.  I have a Davis Vantage Pro2 station on the roof.  All of my data is live on the Internet at www.redfieldweather.com and the Weather Underground at, http://www.wunderground.com/weatherstation/WXDailyHistory.asp?ID=KMINILES3.

I bought the Davis Vantage Pro2 a couple years ago now, and last year I added a Boltek Lightning detector.  That data is also pushed to my web site and to StrikeStarUS.

This picture is of my weather station computer and you can also see my FT-8900R radio along with the HRI-100 that connects it to WiRES-II. 

The top monitor shows my lightening data and WASP2.  WASP2 is an application that displays data from StrikeStarUS and also display Doppler RADAR images.  WASP2 creates the main image on the top of my web page at www.redfieldweather.com.

The bottom monitor displays all the data collected from the Davis Vantage Pro2.  The software is Virtual Weather Station, not the coolest looking software but it does give me a lot of data and a lot of images that can be used on my web site.

Here is a very cold picture of the weather station in the ice we had earlier this year on 1-15-2007.

I also have a weather radio on my desk that is streaming the local NOAA weather radio to the weather underground.  You can listen to the stream here.  The weather radio also has an LED strobe attached to it, so when there is a weather alert the LED will flash. 

My wife makes fun of me, but I think all this is cool.  I love computers and stuff that can connect to them.  Not a cheap hobby but a fun one none the less.