Hi, I appreciate the ideas. But the PWS owner made their coordinates be an intersection of two streets, suggesting that they don't want to be publicly known, per se. No one can blame them in these days of identity theft, etc.
As for knocking on doors: I live in a suburb of a big city. Folks around here (and probably elsewhere) are kind of suspicious of anyone asking oddball questions out of the blue, especially ones where they might have to finger another neighbor as the answer to the question.
In short, it sure would be nicer to just be able to email the actual owner and let them decide if they want to reply instead of beating around the bush, hoping to get lucky. Still, I might have to resort to that.
I had not heard of CWOP ... this is what you mean, right?:
http://www.wxqa.com/stations.html But this site is very problematic:
- Their "current national weather map" graphic is a broken link icon
- But even if it weren't, it says it's provided by Wunderground (leading me back to Wunderground... see OP)
- Trying to change the state in http://www.wxqa.com/states/CO.html, as instructed, brings up a rather meaningless list (how can you find it if you don't know what it's called, nor can you sort on the lat long).
- Randomly clicking on stations here doesn't bring up much more than their weather info. Where do you see email addresses? I don't see anything under "metadata" for the ones I clicked on.
- Using the link at "5. Drill-Down World Map Display" to http://www.kanonbra.com/maps/cwop/all_stations_in_map.html finally brings up an actual map ... but the particular PWS near me on WU doesn't show on that map
- Even if it did, clicking on other PWSs that do exist show that this map gives almost no info except perhaps PWS ID Number. So I guess it would lead back to Wunderground, again as per OP. (Correct me if wrong.)
On another note: I too think that this forum would be best for asking about particular PWS models, etc. But I'm not sold on the personal worth (to me) relative to all the hassle. It would be nice to have an actual physical "demonstration" and talk to an owner at length, than asking here. A forum like this tends to be for Believers already. I'd like to see the actual nuts and bolts of how much time it takes, how well it works, what are the minefields... a rambling conversation with a real unit right in front of us.
I take it you don't directly know a way to contact a Wunderground PWS owner. Okay, now I know. @PaulMy seconds the notion (thanks guy!). I'm kind of surprised they don't have that option... it seems like it would be very useful for folks who are into it. How can you share info and war stories with others near you, if there isn't any way to contact them or even know who they are? Short of a bunch of work-arounds that take longer and might be a wild goose chase. Oh well.
Hey look - I realize you're trying to help. I really appreciate it. I guess I wish the answer wasn't, "no, their isn't a way to contact folks
through the WU site". I might try some of these other things though. Or more likely, just give up.