Pumpkin Island Weather
Conditions
“The Weather tank” Live
On-Line
The following is a brief pictorial of the development and installation of the “Talking” Weather observation station on Pumpkin Island, which is located approximately 16km ENE of Yeppoon in Queensland, Australia.
The idea of a ‘talking” weather observation station basically allows simple access via the standard phone network without the requirements for computers and associated updates. For the area covered by this station the observations are in real-time and available 24 hours a day even from the bedside phone at 3am in the morning and hopefully finding there has been slack wind conditions “out there” as opposed to “in here”.
Certainly beats having to make the effort, drive for miles, fuel the boat, launch the boat only to get halfway across the bay to find a stiff offshore southwesterly or southerly blowing the old beanie off, which wasn’t evident looking out the window prior to departing.
Step 1: find a suitable offshore island, much like this one
Step 2: Arrive one sunny hot morning with the odd shovel (or two),
crowbar, Wheelbarrow etc and select a nice little half metre square spot like
this and
Proceed to dig a hole, quite a substantial hole in fact
Back the next day and setup the foundation bolts
On the third day load half a ton of concrete and water and that type of
concreting stuff into the Ute, unload it from the Ute, load it into the punt,
short trip across the bay, unload it on the beach, then trek it up to the site.
Felt like a damn lot more than half a ton by the time it was sitting beside the
hole
Mix half ton of concrete in a wheelbarrow by hand
And by midday on day 3 one completed concrete foundation
3 weeks latter it was back to the Island for inspection and formwork
removal
The culmination of several years of on shore trial systems, specific
hardware sourcing, acquisition, specific software development and testing plus
some fabrication and electrical fit out resulted in the bits and pieces that
would (hopefully) all fit together miles away on an island.
Many months after the 3 day hole digging and concrete filling exercise
the base and surrounding heat shield (tropical roof) were moved to the
site.
But soon after things were looking up, “an erection” at last
And time to fix / fit all the internal wiring, boxes, batteries and
bits together
By late afternoon all was done and nick named “The Weather Tank”
Within 2 weeks of the initial installation the “Weather tank” measured
wind conditions of around 50 knots with continuous peak gusts between 38 and
49.6 knots (average 41 knots) knots for one 18-hour period. Peak gusts for the
following 24 hours were all in the low to mid 30 knot mark.
Brief Description:
The system is a real-time dial up, voice back over the phone via GSM
with all call pickups and voice operations controlled by the WeatherVox. The
WeatherVox basically provides effective and simple public access to this type
of remote weather installation in real-time at any convenient time.
The voice system can be remotely controlled, configured etc via
telephone and is primarily configured in this application to specifically
report wind and weather conditions appropriate for marine use.
Apart from the voice system all data is continuously recorded/logged
from the Davis Weather Monitor II to the Davis WeatherLink with a backup
(sensor data only) capacity of at least 60 days with total loss of primary
battery power and/or solar panel. With total loss of solar power the whole system
has a 5-day reserve down to the 30% controlled cut-off of the 70Ah primary
battery. Power is automatically restored at 50% of battery capacity, however
this condition, even in completely overcast and adverse conditions has yet to
be encountered.
The weather instrumentation comprises the complete Davis Weather
Monitor II system plus associated WeatherLink module, Protected junction box
and Link isolator. Due to the location of this station and access the data is
logged on a 120- minute interval and downloaded on a 3-month interval.
Availability from the overall system to date has been 100%.
Currently the system still requires some minor software tuning but for most purposes appears to be functioning as expected.
Even though the main structure/support is hot dipped galvanized with fittings either stainless or alloy due to the harsh and continuous salt air environment there is currently plans / requirements to re-design / re-fabricate the pole, solar power, aerials and sensor support entirely from stainless.
The prototype and proving onshore system was originally installed in 1996, which was also freely available via conventional telephone landline until relocated in late 2002. This “onshore” version also reported in real-time and included additional data such as current/min/max temperatures and occurrence, humidity, dew point and rainfall etc. The “offshore” version is capable of these extended output functions as well and configurable over the phone as required.
This “onshore” system is no longer available on line but certainly highlighted over the many years of operation that conditions can vary greatly between coastal conditions and even slightly offshore. In all respects “offshore” (or thereabouts) is where boaties generally want to know the conditions as they are more interested in conditions where they are heading “out there” as opposed to “in here” on the coast.
The communication concept basically allows users to access the system
from virtually anywhere, anytime in real-time as long as one has access to a
telephone service.
The following gives a brief outline and details for users accessing the
Pumpkin Island weather station.
Live
On-line
Pumpkin Island is located in
the Keppel group and approx 16km ENE of Yeppoon.
Pumpkin Island Weather
Conditions Live On-line is a privately built and maintained system capable of
providing current and past weather conditions from Pumpkin Island in real-time
via telephone 24 hours a day. The system provides free-to-air public access,
with the user responsible for individual mobile phone charges as
applicable.
Observations reported are
relevant to the Pumpkin Island area and possible influences from surrounding
Islands and other features could affect observations at times.
This system has no official
status and users should not solely rely on or use the information provided in
lieu of appropriate weather forecasts and/or reports. For the Keppel Bay area,
boating weather forecasts are regularly broadcast direct from Bureau of
Meteorology Rockhampton on VHF channel 21 and available from other
sources.
Prior to accessing this system users
should be aware of and agree to the following conditions.
Weather observations provided by this system have no
official status and used as a guide only, entirely at the users own risk.
Liability is not given or intended by the systems owner or any supporter for
any event, circumstance, reliance or outcome based on the information provided
by this free-to-air system. Although the system is designed to be available 24
hours a day the system may at times be off- line for unspecified purposes.
Users are responsible for mobile phone charges as appropriate.
Pumpkin
Island Weather Conditions live on-line
Mobile
Telephone 0409392007
Note: single line/user access system only, normal call time approx 60 seconds but may vary.
General
output definitions.
The output may vary in content and length of message but most are
self-explanatory.
- Today commences
immediately after 12 midnight
- Yesterday being the
previous 24 hours prior to 12 midnight.
- Current observations are
those at the time of or immediate prior to the call.
- Average Wind Speed is averaged over
a 10-minute period.
- Average Wind Direction is averaged over
a period.
- Peak Gust for the last
Hour is the highest wind gust during the previous whole hour.
- Last Hour is the last whole hour period prior to the current whole
hour period
Eg. For calls at 2.01pm, 2.35pm or 2.59pm the last
hour is from 1pm to 2pm.
- Barometric Pressure at time of call
with 3 hour Trend (Steady / Rising /
Falling).
Any problems experienced or
comments to - P.O Box 343, Yeppoon, QLD. 4703
Prior to accessing the
system users should be aware of the above details and conditions
Revision3 - 14/11/2002 supersedes all previous revisions
Last Updated / Modified - 25/1/2003