I have now used my El cheapo ($30.00 US) Airguide barometer for a few months and have the following report. The good news It works and its readings are very close to those of my more expensive Chelsea barometer. It is the cheapest barometer I have ever seen (other than the five finger discount versions) . It is quite light and survived the drop test on a tile floor. The bad news It is not waterproof or even water resistant and I am certain function would suffer once corrosion got into the workings. I took it apart and there is lots of brass stuff to corrode) A dry bag would probably be essential especially for salt water use.. The graduations are somewhat crude (0.10 graduations) most good barometers have 0.02 graduations. Nevertheless, it is good enough for instant local weather forecasting and because it uses no batteries it is a satisfactory pink bunny repellent. I bought mine from Bass Pro Shops 1-800-442-7776 Up the scale a bit is the Casio Alti-Thermo at $165.00 from Bass Pro. This is a wrist barometer, thermometer, altimeter, alarm, watch, stopwatch, coffee maker, FAX machine and Two way communication system. I used one in Labrador and it worked nicely although you have to remember to take it off your wrist when checking the temperature. DUUUHHH Aside from just being interesting, being able to predict short term weather from your location is useful in avoiding those embarrassing situations requiring rescue gear or a roll. Of course, you need more than just a barometer. You need some basic weather information. My page at http://home.ican.net/~735769/safety.htm is non commercial and provides some stuff you might find useful and interesting on the topic. Cheers, John Winters Redwing Designs Specialists in Human Powered Watercraft http://home.ican.net/~735769/ *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************
John Winters wrote: ***************** I have now used my El cheapo ($30.00 US) Airguide barometer for a few months and have the following report. The good news <snip> The bad news <snip> Up the scale a bit is the Casio Alti-Thermo at $165.00 from Bass Pro. This is a wrist barometer, thermometer, altimeter, alarm, watch, stopwatch, coffee maker, FAX machine and Two way communication system. I used one in Labrador and it worked nicely although you have to remember to take it off your wrist when checking the temperature. DUUUHHH ************* I found a Casio Triple sensor with all of the above plus an electronic compass for $175. The purchase was either made to keep up with my gearhead tendencies or because I decided I needed a waterproof barometer with barograph for weather predictions. At any rate it works pretty much as advertized. The graph shows air pressure trends for the past 24 hrs.. The barometer is temperature and elevation sensitive. I used it this fall when I was walking on the hills behind Lake Superior and found that the elevation changes were sufficient to goof up the barograph record, if I had not expected the changes thanks to reading the manual I would have been very unhappy with the watch. While the altitude sensitivity may not affect sea kayak weather readings, for those of us in less uniform terrain it is something to consider with any barometer. The temperature also had interesting effects, exercise raised the temperature at the watch enough to further exagerate the barometric changes. Presumably the change in air temperature during the day (20-30 degrees F.)would have had an effect even if I had placed the watch away from my body. Both effects appeared to be averaged out during the shifting of data on the display during the 24 hr. recording cycle, I would see 2-4 graph scale unit jumps between the 6-4-and current pressure readings. These would smooth out as the data moved across the graph toward the 24-22-20 hr ago data end. The thermometer is useless when worn on the wrist, however it works fine if the watch is mounted on my PFD accessory patch. I also found it quite fast and accurate for measuring water temperature. IMO, the electronic compass is a totally gearhead feature. Regular compasses do not need batteries, are cheaper, etc. But it is fun and relatively accurate. I would say +- 4 degrees on the digital and the 16 cardinal point accuracy appeared to be good. One feature that I have not tried yet is using the auto altitude storage setting to record temperature change rates over a period of time, say the night. Perhaps useless data, but interesting to some. Dana Dickson *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************
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