I'll try to respond to both with one post.
Yes, Lots of fun getting up there. We actually built a road to get to the repeater site and the Jeeps aren't just for show, they are fully needed to get there
Details:
WX is an Argent Data AD-WS1. This is a very nice setup that is relatively inexpensive with built in TNC. Just hook up to radio and go.
Digipeater is An Alinco DR-135 with an Argent Data T3-135 board installed.
The combo above allowed us to feed the WX data right to the Alinco/T3-135 and make for a very nice "All in one" WX/Digi. We also did a modification to the T3-135 so it would report voltage. Very important to remote sites running on solar.
Solar system is pretty simple. 1x100 watt panel to a 20amp Windy Nation PWM charge controller with a good quality Deep Cycle AGM 12v battery. So far this has held up fine to the power usage. With that said the T3-135 has remote access abilities so we are able to turn the repeating function on and off to reduce power drain if needed. We can also set other parameters this way which is a God send in the winter time when the site is pretty much inaccessible.
We actually have two APRS WX's in the same area. One at our Cabin and the other on the ridge with the digi. We didn't intend to have two in the same area but we needed the digi on the ridge to allow our WX at the cabin to "Get Out" so we installed a spare AD-WS1 at the digi also. The WX at the Cabin started out as a need to report Voltage from our solar there but morphed into weather stations and digipeaters. You know how it goes.
GAPCON (WX/digi on ridge)
GAPWX (WX at Cabin)
We do have a couple of calibrations left to make but for the most part our temps/wind/rain/voltage are good.
Hope this answers your questions. Have a great day.
