Kestrel Instruments is making hyper-local weather monitoring affordable and easily deployable with its first weather station. The KestrelMet 6000 Cellular Weather Station offers a full suite of commercial sensors for accurately monitoring conditions, measuring wind speed and direction, barometric pressure, relative humidity, temperature, and rainfall. Ready to start reporting right out of the box, the KestrelMet 6000 comes pre-configured for quick and easy install.
The KestrelMet 6000 is a reliable all-in-one weather station for commercial, industrial, educational, and research applications. It arrives already put together for the most part for fast frustration free setup and deployment. The price includes a low cost cellular plan(AT&T or Verizon) with the first year free so you connect your Kestrel 6000 to the online dashboard or app.
Setup...
First thing you must do is stop and consider where you will put the KestrelMet 6000. It has to be level, located in a clear area away from trees and anything that might block cellular transmission or sunlight for the solar panel, easy to get at for maintenance and anchored securely. I chose an opening on my hillside that gets Sun and is a safe distance from any trees. I used blocks to level the tripod and anchored it with large ground stakes.
Next you must activated your cellular plan and create an account with KestrelMet. Directions for that are in the manual. After activation it's time to setup the hardware. The only real assembly is done next by mounting the anemometer to the main unit. The supplied instructions spell it out quite clearly and it basically is just putting the shaft together, adding the hub and fastening it to the shaft and connecting the wiring. It takes about 10 minutes. Instructions on angling the solar panel to match your latitude are given in the manual. This will insure maximum exposure for charging. You then install the bird guard to prevent our feathered friends from making a home in your rain collector or using it as a roost. Gently turn your unit over and on the underside find the on/off switch and turn the unit on. When the LED on the solar panel turns green you have successfully connected to your chosen cellular network. Wait a few minutes and then log into kestrelmet.net to see your dashboard.
Mount the unit to the mast or tripod and orient the solar collector to the south if you live in the Northern Hemisphere and north if in the Southern Hemisphere. This will align your anemometer to provide correct wind direction and also maximum Sun exposure. When finished, double check your dashboard to see if everything is operating and sending data as it should.
The price of this unit ($1299 including the first year of cellular service) is probably for those that want the best or are collecting data for research or educational purposes. This is a well constructed piece of data collecting equipment and it's ease of setup and connection will make it invaluable to those who are really into weather data collecting. Mine is right now preparing for the remains of Hurricane Ida to pay us a visit tomorrow. Don't let the price scare you off. If you can afford it...buy it. You won't be disappointed.
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