Article by Pat Schrawder
NEW INNOVATIVE WEATHER STATION
For years now, consumers have been able to purchase weather stations for their home or business that showed temperature, barometric pressure, wind speed, etc. and, occasionally, some have tried to put these instruments on their boat but not with much success. The primary reason was that the moving parts, like the anemometer or wind vane, do not hold up in the strong winds.
Now, along comes AirMar with their model PB150 Ultrasonic WeatherStation® Instrument designed especially for power boat installation. According to their literature, it “features higher-accuracy temperature readings and improved wind speed and direction accuracy. WeatherCaster™ PC Software (available for download from www.airmartechnology.com) puts your own personal weatherman on-board the boat, 24 hours a day. The easy-to-use program has multiple screen views and advanced setup features to customize what you want to see. No Computer on board—no problem, just connect the PB150 to a NMEA 0183 display for up-to-the-minute weather information.”
At a list price of $995, which puts it substantially higher than the typical home instrument, you might wonder why this would be appealing to the marine consumer. The answers are actually numerous. First, it has no moveable parts and, therefore, requires little or no maintenance. Second, and in my mind most important, is the fact that it has its own self contained GPS receiver, giving you a backup source if your regular GPS goes out. Beyond that, it has many attractive features such as true wind speed and direction, apparent wind speed and direction, barometric pressure, air temperature, wind chill temperature, ultrasonic measurement of wind speed and direction, wind calibration traceable to NIST, a two-axis solid-state compass and a three-axis accelerometer providing pitch and roll.
The unit comes with its exclusive WeatherCaster™ Software to install on a personal computer. With it, data can be viewed in both digital and analog formats and can be saved for a set period of time. The log time can be adjusted in intervals from 6 to 72 hours. Standard NMEA sentences and an RS422 interface allows for the flexibility of designing your own software program to fit your specific application. There is also a “combiner” option that allows you to run the PB150 through a display instrument and a personal computer at the same time.
Although manufactured by AirMar and providing a standard NMEA 0183 output, this unit is designed to go with the Furuno RD30 remote display. If you add their “smart sensor” to it, the RD30 gives you depth sounder capabilities and can even be added to your Furuno VXII NavNet system. Installation of this product on a Furuno RD30 couldn’t be easier. It comes with their standard 7-pin data plug so this is truly one of those “plug and play” units. If you just want to connect your weather instrument to a display like the RD 30, you just need the PB150 and the compatible display. If you want to add a smart sensor for depth sounding capabilities and/or connect to a PC or a NavNet display, you will need their “combiner” unit. It has a list price of $550, making the total package list at $1,545. Of course, it will normally be discounted at the point of purchase but that price will vary as with all equipment.
Will this unit become a standard item on most boats? The answer is no but, for some, this will be a handy addition that they will come to depend upon.
Pat and her husband, Larry are owners of L&L Marine Electronics in West Ocean City, MD.
