I'm looking for some advice on which station to get. I'm confident a high-end box would do the job, but I'm wondering if there's something less expensive that would be just as good for my needs.
I'm located in New Zealand, and would want to place the station at my home, which is near the top of a ridge, about 100m above sea level and about 300m away from the ocean.
I'm interested mostly in just temperature and wind speed on a real-time basis. I'm also looking for good-quality 12 to 24 hour forecasts for temperature, wind speed and cloud cover (solar radiance). If I could get rain and evapotranspiration details and forecasts as well, it would be a big plus, but only if the incremental cost isn't huge. Estimates of current and/or predicted optical seeing (atmospheric clarity / stability, for use with a telescope) would be awesome, although I realize it's not likely to be available from a conventional home weather station. An ability to show historical information and trends is also important, as is an open API for accessing the raw data, in case I eventually want to write my own software or export the data to other applications.
A wireless setup is my first choice, partly because I'm a ham radio operator, and long wires feeding into electrical devices around here have a good chance of acting as antennas and causing unhappy things to happen to the associated electronics unless special care is taken. A WiFi connection would be great. Davis-style commercial frequencies aren't my first choice, mainly because it costs a small fortune to have them modified to be legal in New Zealand.
Comments and suggestions welcome.