Scottish Aero Club

23rd July 2007

I am sad to report that after a long and difficult battle with 24/7 operation, the searing heat of the computer cabinet, and the cleaners regularly pulling the plug out, the weather/webcam computer died last week.... long live the new computer ! New hard drive, memory, motherboard, power supply, etc etc - only the outer case remained the same. Furthermore, the eastern webcam did not agree with the new Windows XP operating system, so we had to part company.  The good news is that the new eastern webcam seems to be of far better quality than the old, so we’re up and at ‘em once more!

27th December 2006

Web site revised and updated for compatibility with Mozilla Firefox web browser.

3rd March 2006

When using the mobile phone WAP access feature of the site, it seems that certain phones (E.g. newer Nokia types) were receiving the error “Unknown File Format” and were therefore unable to connect.  This was traced to these phones not understanding the degrees symbol (°) in the WAP page - this has been fixed.

9th June 2005

Metcheck.com have completely revamped their splendid weather website.  The links on the Summary page have been revised to point at the new-style Metcheck page based upon the PH2 postcode.
Note also that we are getting continued intermittent problems with the Oregon Scientific equipment for which we apologise. For example the wind gauge went “flat-line” a couple a weeks ago then sprang back into life a week later of it’s own accord.  Advice must be that if you are looking for a weather station package go for the best quality equipment you can afford (but not Oregon Scientific!).

4th December 2004

We now have a second webcam in operation orientated Eastwards (more like E.N.E.).  This will help to guage cloud base and visibility due to the feature of King’s Seat hill in the middle distance (about 5 miles - see map to right).  King’s Seat is 377m high, being 1,225 ft. in old money.  You can just make out the second webcam perched on the upper window-sill in the picture below. Unfortunately, it is not as good quality as the Northerly cam but, curiously, manages to pick up more detail in poor light conditions. Anyway, onwards and upwards!

5th October 2004

Well, that was a long two weeks. Anyway, the system is now back up and running in the corner of the new clubroom at Perth. Thanks to Kelvin Kitchens of Cumbernauld for a thoroughly professional job (done at cost) on the bespoke stand for the system.  The barometric pressure is currently not working, but will be again come this week-end.  A few minor changes in the meantime, including;

• The transmitter for the wind sensor failed again and had to be replaced under warranty.
• We are now using the latest version of the weather station software (Weather Display 10.17v)
• The WAP (mobile phone) access page now includes a small graph of the wind history which, although too small for accurate reading, gives a good indication of the trend over the last 12 hours.  The WAP site is also easier to access, being on;

wap.perthmet.net

(The old WAP address still works also.)

 

26th June 2004

Apologies...but due to recent and ongoing office renovation work taking place at Perth Airport, we have been unable to maintain the reliability and currency of information on this web site at a reasonable level.

We have therefore disabled the site until such times as we are confident that the mains power in the Scottish Aero Club offices will not be continuously interrupted, and the equipment can therefore be relied upon once again to a reasonable extent.

This is likely to be at least two weeks from time of writing (26th June 2004).

We will keep you updated.

18th January 2004

• New transmitters for the wind guage and outside temperature/humidity sensor have been fitted. The system is again fully functional.

12th January 2004

• Bah! Now the wind and temperature transmitters have gone faulty. I’m assured that this level of equipment failure is unusual (isn’t that lucky :-/ ) and Weatherfront have popped a couple of spares in the post for us.  Normal service should be resumed at the week-end.

26th November 2003

• Hurrah!  The rain guage is now working and confirms what we had suspected all along - it sometimes rains in Perth!

12th November 2003

• This web site is also now available under the catchy new address:
  
     www.perthmet.net
  
  WAP phones are also now able to use the address:
  
      www.perthmet.net/wap
  
  NOTE:  The old “microlights” web addresses will continue to work as before.

8th November 2003

• Over the last several days, the outside temperature and humidity graphs have been “flatlining” (as well as the rainfall graph - see 26th October below). This has been traced today to faulty transmitters for both the temperature/hygrometer and rain guage sensors. A replacement sensor has now been fitted for the temperature guage - hopefully resolving that probem. A replacement sensor for the rain guage is on order - hopefully not coming all the way from its birthplace in the Peoples Republic of China!
• All of the transmitters have been moved higher on the outside gantry to attempt to improve reliability of wireless reception by the indoor base station.
• The Inside Story page has been updated.

3rd November 2003

• Pressure readings are now offset to provide QNH (sea level) figures. These should now read the same as the QNH pressure figure given by the Perth Airport radio room.  Be aware that historical pressure data is NOT adjusted, and will continue to read approximate QFE pressures at the particular time. Such are the problems during the “teething” phase of the system!

26th October 2003

• News and Inside Story pages added to site.
• We have a problem with the rain guage transmitter - no rainfall data is being sent to the weather base station. This will probably take a week or two to rectify. So dont believe everything you read - sometimes it does rain in Scotland.

[Summary] [Webcam Pics] [Last 24] [Last 48] [Last 72] [Highs & Lows] [WAP Phones] [Inside Story]