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"Keep
a weather eye on Peet Bros."
The
Pick of Our Mailbag
Our
sincere thanks to those below, as well as the many others, who have so thoughtfully
written to tell us of their experiences with Peet Bros. products and staff.
JIM
OLSEN HAD
THIS TO SAY ABOUT HIS ULTIMETER 2100
I
just wanted to thank you for a very fine product. I currently live in
a remote mountain cabin at 10,200 feet near the continental divide.
I've installed my own hydro electric system in the cabin, and currently
live off of grid. By trade, I am a software engineer. So naturally, I had
to put together my own software for monitoring all kinds of things up here
related to the cabin. My first task was to write a program to monitor the
battery bank and inverter setup.
I finally completed the program. My next project was a life long dream of
setting up a sophisticated
weather station. As a young child, I actually built my own weather station
utilizing read switches, LEDs and a motor. So I had a fair bit of knowledge
going into this endeavor. After a whole bunch of research, I decided on
the
Peet Brothers weather station (ULTIMETER 2100, with heated sensors and
unimount). When it arrived, my only neighbor (the population of the town
up
here is 2 during the winter) excitedly helped me set up the station. It
went together easy, and performed flawlessly out
of the box.
The
next part of the project was to begin to write the software. After
accessing your website, I was able to rapidly build my own serial cable to
communicate with the device. I was pleasantly surprised to find ample
documentation on the protocols, and I was able to write a basic weather
monitoring program completely in Java. It now publishes my data to the
web.
So far, your station has performed flawlessly.
Thanks,
Jim Olsen
http://www.caversdigest.com/
STEPHEN
D. HAD THIS TO SAY ABOUT HURRICANE FABIAN 2003
"Just
thought I would drop you a note and let you know that the Peet Brothers weather
equipment did a great job in Hurricane Fabian. I recorded a high wind of 123
mph at 4:01 on Friday September 5 and of course the alarms were going crazy because
the Barometric Pressure
dropped quite a bit, from 29.5 to 28.14 within hours and then started to rise
which gave us a sense that the weather was getting better which it did. The storm
didn't carry much rain with it (thankfully, as an 8ft by 10ft section of my roof
was blown off), we recorded .24 inches and it stayed like that for quite a while
and only finished at .44 inches. I have recorded at least 2 inches in less than
an hour in one of our tropical storms. Had to monitor it on Battery for a while
as we were without electricity for over a week, just got it back on yesterday
Sept 16, so 11 days.
As
I write this, roof is fixed, Gazebo torn down, and 22 bags of debris, leaves
etc removed from the property. I now have to have pool cleaned..........Just
thought you might be interested."
Stephen D
The
Naperville Emergency Management Agency in Naperville, IL made plans to install
two ULTIMETER 2000 Systems, one in their Emergency Headquarters building and one
at Police Headquarters. Sgt. Rob Foshay, a volunteer with the Naperville Emergency
Management Agency, wrote an extensive article about the Peet Bros. Weather Stations
in the Naperville Emergency Management Agency Times newsletter. The following
excerpts may answer some questions about the unique features of some of the weather
sensors used by the ULTIMETER Weather Stations and how they compare to competitor's
products.
"Most
low-cost anemometers use a number of microswitches mounted so that one of them
is closed to indicate wind direction. This is inherently inaccurate. By contrast,
the Peet Bros. indicator is designed to generate two digital pulse streams, one
for direction and one for wind speed. The phase angle between the pulse streams
reflects the wind direction. This is done by a very simple mechanism using high-quality
magnetic reed switches, two magnets and one piece of mu-metal for magnetic shielding.
The result is that the [ computer] indicator shows wind direction to within
2 degrees, and wind speed indicator is capable of accurately measuring peak (gust)
values rather than the average value produced by most low-priced anemometers.
The pivot is a high-quality, ball bearing race which should never need maintenance.
However, if dirt or insects get into the housing, it comes apart easily without
tools for cleaning.
The ULTIMETER Pro Rain Gauge is deceptively simple in appearance. It has no moving
parts. Rain is gathered by a parabolic collector and passed through two precisely
engineered filter screens, into a precision drop formation nozzle of the sort
used in IV drips in hospitals. The nozzle is designed so each drop is exactly
the same size, and represents 1/1000th of an inch of rain. The drop
falls through a tube with four gold-plated pins. When it makes contact with the
pins, this causes a change in impedance in a detecting circuit. The pulse is then
electronically filtered and converted to a digital signal to the keyboard unit.
Only the highest-quality parts and materials are used throughout. Because the
unit has no moving parts, it is inherently more reliable that the bucket-style
gauges. However, it will occasionally have to be disassembled and cleaned with
a zero-residue cleaner such as alcohol. All the maintenance points are easily
removed, with no tools. There is provision for a heating element to melt snow
if the gauge is being used for soil moisture calculation. Quite a bit of thought
clearly went into the design. A special thanks from
us all to Mr. Bill Peet of Peet Bros. Company for his support. We all were impressed
by his commitment to his product and to customer service."
Rich
Fuller, Mt Carroll, IL
"I
would like to say, thanks, to you and your staff at Peet Bros. (especially Mr.
Stewart) for all the assistance that you have given me with both tech and hardware
support. It's great to know that there are knowledgeable people at that end of
the line who are willing to take the time to help folks like me resolve any and
all problems which might occur. And it's also refreshing to do business with a
company such as yours who stands behind its products!"
Tom
and Karen Albers Hall, Balto, MD
"Once
again, thanks for the great service! I got my humidity sensor & all is great once
again. I have to say..Peet Bros. is the best company I've ever dealt with, period.
Great Customer Service."
Dave Campbell from Ontario, Canada sent us an e-mail in which he stated,"Just
wanted to say thanks for a package that has it all. Quality, Style, Easy to install
and use. The ULTIMETER 2000 I purchased at Dayton Hamfest is my first Peet Bros.
product and by far not the last."
G.
Thomas Sorbera e-mailed us with comments about his recently purchased ULTIMETER 2000 and the Weather Picture
"
On a scale of 1-10, I would rate the system a 9.999."
Bernie
Fine, Whitehorse, Ohio
"Nice
job on the Weather Picture. It has a very prominent place in my ham shack. It
is a great addition and probably the most eye-catching of all the equipment."
Rick
Bergeron of Hayden Lake, Idaho writes
"
Thank you for fabricating the special adaptors to allow my rain gauge to function
using 4 conductor extension cable. The service received from Peet Brothers has
been exceptional....as it has always been in the past. That is one of the main
reasons that I have made purchases from Peet Brothers...and have recommended your
products to friends and co-workers. "
Tom
Blackmon, Alabama
"
I wish to thank you for the prompt response to my e-mail of 28 Oct. '97. This
is just one more reason I have enjoyed doing business with Peet Bros. over the
past several years. "
Michael
A. Usas, an amateur radio operator from Bainbridge, OH reports,
"
I am just writing to you to let you know how happy I am with the ULTIMETER 500
I bought from your company in April of 1996. It stood up to the severe winter
and blazing heat of the Ohio seasons with no problems at all In my opinion, I
believe it to be a fine and precision instrument at a great value. I'm an Amateur
Radio Operator and involved with several different weather tracker and SKYWARN
programs in the central and Southern Ohio regions and the ULTIMETER 500 has been
a great friend to me mainly because of the fact that I can see the changes from
the comfort of my "Ham Shack" and report them as needed. I'd like to
thank you for making such a quality product."
Tony
Amato of Chester, VA complemented us on our great software,
"All
I can say is the software is fantastic! It is a dream! You did a super job in
the layout and the attention to details is outstanding."
Jim Conley
II writes,
"
I called right before Christmas to have an ULTIMETER 2000 upgrade unit sent to
me Feb. 15, and when the 15th rolled around I knew that it would probably take
about 3 or 4 days to get my unit, but to my surprise I found the unit sitting
at my doorstep the very next day!! You certainly have very prompt service and
I really like that! I really like what the ULTIMETER 2000 offers! You get more
for less. I really like the Flash Flood Alert and Storm Alert modes. The Storm
Alert mode warned me of a severe thunderstorm that was going to hit my town and
sure enough we had a big one, wind gust of 63 mph and very heavy rain. It is very
accurate! I have also found that the temperature, pressure, wind rain gauge readings
are also very accurate."
Jon Nordstrom
says,
"I
just wanted to take the time to thank you and your staff for the top of the line
service you have given me."
Jim W. Waterfield
very thoughtfully sent us this unsolicited note with his order for Model 2000
upgrade kit.
"At
9:57 P.M., a strong thunderstorm came through. It produced a "gustnado"
twister which went between my house and garage and snapped off a birch tree and
scattered my crab pots for 1/4 of a mile. Guess what, the ULTIMETER II recorded
a high of 156 mph. It is stored and easily recalled for all to see. Prior to this
the highest gust was 108 mph during hurricane Emily. It is really a good unit.
I am more than satisfied. I live on North Carolina's outer banks. It gets the
winds directly from the ocean and sounds. We get nasty "noreasters".
So far the unit has functioned perfectly through thick and thin. .... Your customers
will never regret purchasing an ULTIMETER!"
Thanks again to all who have taken the time to share their experiences. We appreciate
your kind words.
"Keep
a weather eye on Peet Bros."
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