Hi all,
Well the VP made it home 
I have installed it in a temp position for now. I have to change it though and you will see why from the pictures below. I have booked a Scissor lift for next week and I HOPE to get all the equipment on my roof.
I hope I have illustrated my position well in the pictures. My plan, unless you guys advise different is to remove the large beam antenna and locate all the equipment on that pole. I will probably raise the pole up a further 6 ft or so.
What you think?
Hi Shaggy you do things fast 
You only have to put up the anemometer and wind vain high up. The rest of the VP can stay low down for accuracy and maintenance. In the open away from trees etc. But i know its not easy. We all just have to do the best we can.
Well I can put the ISS on that fence, but then its a long cable run, I would have to get some more me thinks. Whats the issue with sticking up on the pole? I am not looking for complete accuracy. How far our will it be?
Cheers
You asked for sitting suggestionsâŚ
You get heat off of your house that causes the temps and humidity to be off.
You effect rain totals by having more wind up high causing your rain totals to be lower.
To name a few.
Hello,
You have a very good place for the wind sensors on that pole above the roof so thatâs sorted. Finding a place for the ISS is more tricky. The best place for most of us would be bang in the centre of the lawn if we had one but how many of us can or are allowed to :(.
Putting it on a fence post which is attached to a fence is probably one of the worse places IMO.
You can get more cable to reach the wind sensors or even get an anemometer transmitter.
OK, I guess in that case I will order some extention cable and keep the ISS where it is or maybe move it to a fence post away from the trees? What ya think?
Yep away from the trees would be good. If you get the wind sensors high up you will get very good data which is an important part of weather recording.
Its very easy for us to give advise but as they say its up to you in the end.
If you put the ISS on a fence you might get very false reading if it rained then the sun came out. Your Temp & humidity would shot up in a matter of minutes.
Above all enjoy it. You have done a lot in such a shoot time. It took me a 5 weeks to get the station put up. #-o
Ok, I understand what you mean about the fence bit.
For me its either gonna be that, or keep the ISS where it is. I cant acually think of anywhere else I can put it other than on a pole above the garage?
Judging from your photos I think you are likely to have some rain shadow over your ISS caused by trees or buildings wherever you put it so I would go with the least worse place which still allows conectivity. Even with your anemometer on the roof you will still probably under read windspeed, most home stations do possibly by as much as 15-20% when compared to those mounted in the open without a roof causing turbulence and âground effectâ slowing the wind. One way to check is to compare with any official stations in your area once you are up and running, if you need to you can get WD to make an adjustment in the software.
Stuart
Siting is almost always a compromise in a suburban environment and to a certain extent the best location will depend on the parameters that matter most to you. It
You could leave the ISS where it is for now, and later, once your wallet heals, get a wired tipping rainbucket that has the same tip size, place it in a better location such as the garage roof, and wire it up to the ISS, in place of the Davis rainbucket. If you are using the .01inch tip, Rainew makes a very nice 8 inch wired rain gauge that can be obtained for $US 60-80. Since it is wired, it does not matter where you buy it.
Steve
Thanks guys. Keep the suggestions comming. I have a week to decide 
If you were able to move the pole, that the ISS is on now, further away form the trees and towards your drive then you may get slightly less shadow from the trees. I think Iâd move it up the pole a wee bit more as well. 
The anemometer and wind vain should definitely go on top of the tallest antenna pole (I think everybody agrees on that). The ISS unit should ideally be in the middle of the back yard, high enough up that the trees and fence have a minimal impact on preventing the rain from getting to the rain bucket, and the breeze from circulating around the temp and humidity sensors. BUT, since nobody wants a pole sitting in the middle of their backyard where people, lawn mowers, etc. can hit it, I would try to position it in a place along the fence where the trees and buildings would have a minimal impact on the rain/temp/humidity sensors. I would also raise the ISS unit above the top of the fence so that the fence doesnât block the rain from the rain bucket, and the temp/humidity sensors donât get false readings from sunlight reflecting off of the fence.
As has been said before, when you live in an urban environment, compromise is the name of the game. You just do the best that you can with what you have to work with (ie. grounds, neighbors, wife, etc.).
Thanks Rookie
Read the siting guild that was linked several replys up. It will help you decide immensely.
You have to think maintenance as being a factor as well. The wind side requires little maintenance, it either spins or it doesnât. If it doesnât spin, probably spiders have taken up webbing ( really it does happen, not kidding this time. I havenât had that âŚyet) so that isnât a problem.
The second thing is the rain gauge⌠birds poop in it. If you are thinking about mounting it up on the roof, then you need something around the edges to keep the buggers from sitting a source of bird spikes are http://wildliferehabber.com/birdspikes.htm. you just glue those suckers around the edge and you are fine.
Then comes the ISS it self, you have to occasionally replace the battery in the unit and hope that the little foam plug hasnât shrunk letting in god knows what into the iss. I donât think it a big problem.
But if you donât mind climbing up on roofs or high places ⌠enjoy⌠I used to have no problem with that but as I got older it wasnât that easy to climb up the ladder and run across the roof .
Also aesthetics. Personally, I would want the tower from Hell on my yard but that isnât happening. I think you have to compromise with some things here.
If you are going to send your data to the mesonet you have to meet standards . The ISS on the roof you have to worry about heat radiation from the roof or a heating vent or attic fan giving false readings. Standing on hot concrete or asphalt can be hotter than on the lawn and the weather station will feel that as well and report what is bouncing up from the surroundings rather than what is in the air.
Finally, if you have a significant other who isnât into your hobby⌠you have to deal with that person as well. Which explains why I donât have the tower from Hell in my yard like I want ⌠:?
If you sit your ISS and rain bucket in the yard area, You might have to contend with âSprinkler RainââŚ
This is a phenomenon that occurs when the significant other decides to water the lawn with the sprinkler set on real high⌠its amazing how much âSprinkler Rainâ can accumulate in a short period of timeâŚ
We have not had that phenomenon for some time however⌠but it has happened here in the past.
I have the same siting issues as you. Acceptable locations for wind, rain, and temperature are in 3 different places. I currently have a Lacrosse WS2308, and am saving up for a Davis. I read all the manuals and technical notes I could find on the Davis web site. We had a long discussion on all the different ways you could configure bits of Davis kit here:
http://www.weather-watch.com/smf/index.php?topic=992.0
Most of the Davis stuff is on the later pages. Iâm not going to recap all the details here, you can read it over there if you are interested, However, we noted that:
The module in the Anemometer transmitter (and the Temperature/Humidity station) is exactly the same as the one in the ISS. You could plug all the sensors into the anemometer transmitter and have everything work.
The thing that makes them act differently is how you configure them in the console.
According to the manual, the configuration settings available in the console are:
ISS, TEMP, HUM, TEMP HUM, WIND, RAIN, LEAF, SOIL, and LEAF/SOIL
I THINK this means that if you take an anemometer transmitter, plug a rainbucket into the rain jack, and configure that transmitterâs ID as RAIN in the console, you can use it to remote the rain gauge just like you can remote the anemometer.
Once you get your anemometer transmitter and still have all your kit in one place, you could experiment.
In any event, I would be very interested to find out if this works.
One caution, since Davis does not advertise remoting the rain sensor, even if this works now, there might not be any guarantee that this configuration option will continue to be available in some future firmware update.
Steve