I’m currently in the process of figuring out the best placement for my station. Clear, unobstructed wind readings are the most important for me, that’s why I want to place the station where it is exposed. The shore is very bushy and full of obstackles so it is not possible to place on solid ground.
I was thinking of putting the station on a 7m tall pole, sticking out of the lake (about 10-40cm deep still water, possible exposure to small waves, 15-20 meters out from land).
Has anyone experimented with a similar setup? Is this a bad idea? What should I be careful about?
If the location is on your property, I would suggest that you pour a concrete slab, as thick as you can manage and then fasten a post to it.
It is currently on a temporary shovel pole, but im on it!
Stating the obvious about the humidity readings being skewed on a dock/pole installation over water…
Here it is! I dont really care about the humidity, but since it is a big lake it is technically not skewed and accurate for a big area
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Update: Initially, i did not want to fix the pole down with cables, but i found out it is necessary due to the extreme exposure. In windy conditions the top tilted around a few centimeters in a wobbly motion. I installed cables on 3 sides, 2cables/side. That killed all the wobble even in stormy winds. Also, the pole I am using is made out of carbon fibre, which is a very rigid material. It does not dampen vibrations, it directly forwards them onto the station. I put sand in the pole, and that got rid of 99.9% of the vibrations. By the way, the waves directly impacting the pole are the main cause of the vibrations, so putting something around the pole to stop the waves is a good idea. I’d say the worst part of this setup was getting the pole to be exactly vertical, you’d think because I have water right next to it, it would be easy to figure out the perfect angle, but it took way more effort than i would’ve thought to get this thing exactly upright.
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