Author Topic: Goldstar Stations  (Read 55090 times)

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Online CW2274

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Re: Goldstar Stations
« Reply #25 on: August 12, 2016, 08:33:08 PM »
I found it rather odd that they decided to use the term Goldstar as, at least in the US, many people associate that term with the families of fallen military members.
My dad had a blue star in his window while I served. The use of a "gold star" is not offensive to me in particular, but others may disagree, I don't know.

Offline hankster

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Re: Goldstar Stations
« Reply #26 on: August 13, 2016, 10:58:52 AM »
Now my Bloomsky (which is currently reading 3 deg. high) has a goldstar and my Vue station doesn't. What a joke.

Maybe those that pay Wu a fee are the real "goldstar" stations? :)
« Last Edit: August 13, 2016, 11:01:03 AM by hankster »

Offline SpringHillWeather

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Re: Goldstar Stations
« Reply #27 on: August 13, 2016, 11:16:58 AM »
Now my Bloomsky (which is currently reading 3 deg. high) has a goldstar and my Vue station doesn't. What a joke.

Maybe those that pay Wu a fee are the real "goldstar" stations? :)

Maybe they got it backwards, its the stations that have Goldstars are actually Flagged for bad data... hahah sorry couldn't resist.....

All the bloomsky's in my area have gold stars too.
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Offline Maumelle Weather

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Re: Goldstar Stations
« Reply #28 on: August 13, 2016, 11:34:55 AM »
Interesting.  My Davis has a Gold star, but my Bloomsky doesn't. Evidently their QC is about on par with Gladstone/CWOP. It's like flip-a-coin on a daily basis as to what is in "spec", and what isn't, which is why I don't have much faith in either. The nearest weather station to me is 8 miles away. The nearest METARs are 20 and 33 miles away, respectively.
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Offline SteveFitz1

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Re: Goldstar Stations
« Reply #29 on: August 13, 2016, 01:26:31 PM »
From what I can tell, the Gold Star indicates the station you're viewing is one of your Favorites. You can make a station a Favorite by clicking on the "gray" star next to the city name, or you can "un-Favorite" it by clicking on the Gold Star and it will turn gray.

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Offline Jáchym

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Re: Goldstar Stations
« Reply #30 on: August 13, 2016, 01:28:27 PM »
No I dont think so, it is not the case for me and even when you hover over the icon it tells you it is based on data quality check

Offline SteveFitz1

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Re: Goldstar Stations
« Reply #31 on: August 13, 2016, 01:33:26 PM »
Jachym,

When I hover over the star next to the name, nothing comes indicating quality check. When I click on the gray star, it turns cold and the location is added to the WU Favorites bar immediately. If I click on the gold star, it turns gray and the location is immediately removed from the WU Favorites bar.

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Offline Jáchym

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Re: Goldstar Stations
« Reply #32 on: August 13, 2016, 01:36:03 PM »
I think you are looking at a different thing

Offline SteveFitz1

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Re: Goldstar Stations
« Reply #33 on: August 13, 2016, 01:52:45 PM »
I'm on the Forecast page...
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Offline Jáchym

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Re: Goldstar Stations
« Reply #34 on: August 13, 2016, 02:09:50 PM »
Yes, so this is the "favorite icon", this station you are looking at does not have the new "gold star" - see the image I posted to see where it would appear.

Offline nixxon

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Re: Goldstar Stations
« Reply #35 on: August 13, 2016, 03:33:20 PM »
I registered at wunderground August 3.
Yesterday, 9 days later, August 12, I started uploading data from my Vantage Vue WS.
Due to an error, my Vantage Vue reports wind speed = 0 and heading 0 (or 360) degrees, no matter if it is windy or not.
Today I noticed that my station, IBRUM59, has passed a 5 day quality test and has received the Goldstar rating  ;)

I suspect that my rating is a result of my station being a decent make/model and that there are no other (decent) weatherstations nearby.

EDIT: 1 hour after I wrote the above, my weather station is no longer goldstar rated. Go figure ;)
EDIT 2: Actually my station still is Goldstar rated. It is however only visible when I go to My Profile --> My Weather Stations
« Last Edit: August 13, 2016, 05:13:24 PM by nixxon »

Offline hankster

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Re: Goldstar Stations
« Reply #36 on: August 13, 2016, 04:18:56 PM »
Pretty typical of my readings, the "Gold Star" Bloomsky showing 3 deg. higher than the Vue. The higher temp readings on the Bloomsky is not site related. I've tried it 4 different locations and now it's on a pole 3 ft. above grass in an open area.

Offline SufferinSuccotash

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Re: Goldstar Stations
« Reply #37 on: August 14, 2016, 12:06:45 PM »
I wonder if this "GoldStar" designation is a way to "reward" sites that are PERCEIVED to be more accurate by WU.   My date for renewal has been extended to a date a year hence from a few days before this GoldStar status was implemented.  Any thoughts?

Offline SufferinSuccotash

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Re: Goldstar Stations
« Reply #38 on: August 14, 2016, 12:12:56 PM »
Anyway... I think that the "quality" control is questionable.  What exactly are they measuring and against what?
Yesterday a huge storm came through and knocked out power for 6 hours.. my UPS kept things going for 2.5 hours but then gave up the ghost.  I'm still gold star status?  I wonder how often do they run the algorithm?

Offline Jáchym

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Re: Goldstar Stations
« Reply #39 on: August 14, 2016, 12:17:19 PM »
and... shouldnt they data quality check all the stations?!

if they think some station is not accurate, then whats the point of showing it (though of course I am not saying to hide data from stations currently not rated with the goldstar, because obviously this data quality check is totally inaccurate)

Offline SpringHillWeather

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Re: Goldstar Stations
« Reply #40 on: August 14, 2016, 12:18:47 PM »
I currently have 3 stations reporting to wunderground.  Two are gold-star, one is not.

The one that is not gold-star has had a couple of brief outages in the last 5 days.

I'm guessing the consistency of your reporting interval is a big factor.

I think you may be right.  I did have a slight network outage the other night and my station #1 didn't show up with 5 Gold Stars until today.

Station #1 passes CWOP but I have doubts the BloomSky could, so is this just a gimmick?     

Update: WU switched the Bloomsky barometer readings from ABS which matched all in the area back to the default, which is way high.

« Last Edit: August 14, 2016, 12:23:40 PM by StatenIslandWeather »
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Offline Jáchym

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Re: Goldstar Stations
« Reply #41 on: August 14, 2016, 12:35:47 PM »
I will be able to confirm this on Tuesday.

I have relatively inaccurate data, I mentioned this before, I am aware of it and my station is only mostly for testing and I dont look at the temperature when it is sunny outside. The station is not well sited and when it is hot and sunny, it shows much higher temps than reality (so they already cut me off CWOP).

On the other hand, I tend to have no gaps, but, just 3 days ago the batteries drained so I had to change them and the station was offline for 2 hours, so now there is a gap, but lets see what happens once 5 days elapses since that incident, I havent had any gaps since then.

Offline hankster

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Re: Goldstar Stations
« Reply #42 on: August 14, 2016, 03:00:38 PM »
I don't think it has to do with consistency of your reporting interval. I looked at the past week history of my now "non goldstar" Davis Vue and there are no breaks in the data.

Online CW2274

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Re: Goldstar Stations
« Reply #43 on: August 14, 2016, 03:08:14 PM »
Back off folks, I'm sure the QC is done with a NIST traceable dart board.

Offline NYJason

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Re: Goldstar Stations
« Reply #44 on: August 14, 2016, 06:03:11 PM »
No Goldstar for me.  I consistently get two thumbs up from MADIS, WU must use a "Unique formula".  Here is a nearby station that is Goldstar.  (with a wind reading that rarely leaves zero and amazingly got none of the .41" of rain I received today.  Quality!)

https://www.wunderground.com/personal-weather-station/dashboard?ID=KNYOWEGO8

I tried posting a screen capture, but the forum software decided I shouldn't.  oh well.

Edit:  the screen cap did work, strange.

Offline Jáchym

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Re: Goldstar Stations
« Reply #45 on: August 14, 2016, 06:09:02 PM »
<?php

 $randomNum = rand(0,1);
 
 if($randomNum==0){
    $goldstar = false;
 }
 else{
    $goldstar = true;
 }

?>

Offline WA4TM

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Re: Goldstar Stations
« Reply #46 on: August 14, 2016, 06:14:30 PM »
I think they are passing out gold stars in hopes no one will notice the crappy new wundermaps!!!   Well, it didn't work here!!

Offline daman

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Re: Goldstar Stations
« Reply #47 on: August 14, 2016, 06:28:24 PM »
I just got mine today, wow :mrgreen:
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Offline vreihen

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Re: Goldstar Stations
« Reply #48 on: August 14, 2016, 06:42:52 PM »
My home ISP will ensure that I never see a gold star.  Besides, sprinkles are for winners.....  :lol:

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Offline chief-david

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Re: Goldstar Stations
« Reply #49 on: August 14, 2016, 06:51:52 PM »
I have one.  Whoopie. Is this graded on a scale of A-F 0-8, 0-6, 0-4?

As you can get I am getting in school mode. Yuck.  I have 4 days of inservice next week. Two days the next week, and 4 days the last of August. Then school.




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