First, apologies in my delay in getting back here!
I dug out my RPi, got Linux on it, and have a RTL-SDR dongle arriving today. I haven't ordered any station or equipment yet; right now looking into seeing how the receiver and Weewx works, because then I can get it talking to the Davis (or other equip) without getting stuck with one of their consoles.
Before construction finishes up, consider having an underground (direct burial UF) 120VAC cable buried out to the general area that you are referring to. And while the trench is open, add direct burial Cat6 etc. You can bring those cables up to a 4x4 post with weatherproof boxes. I suggest not going more than 100 meters from your house network.Having power and ethernet in the general area of your weather sensors allows options that you wouldn't otherwise have. You never know what you might want to do out there a few years down the road. 
Even just some landscape lighting.
I will see about getting this done - it may be too late as I'm not sure they will be bringing out the trencher anymore. (And because of inspections, not sure the county would allow to run anything that's not being used yet; which means I would do it later.) Luckily, the design of the house makes it real easy for me to do this in the future, should I wish! (But I agree, having power/network out to a location like this wouldn't be a bad idea.)
If you have that kind of money to devote to it, just go all Davis for what Davis supports and get it over with and let them be the integrators. PurpleAir is also quite good and has a nice API to querying it and there is a weewx extension that is good.
Having looked at their items - as I understand it I would need to get one of their 'gateways' if I don't get one of their consoles, and the gateways require a 'hardware activation fee' and 'annual subscription'. I would really,
really prefer to avoid that. (I'm not cheap, but I don't like relying on someone else's servers.. Call me paranoid.
)
As for issues of quality, support, and missing features, I am not aware of a consumer/prosumer grade weather station that doesn't suffer from those to certain extents. Yes, it's 2024 and I don't believe any company has an excellent track record on all three at a reasonable price. Like sighting a weather station, you'll generally have to decide what compromises you can live with. Some of us are hobbyists and some are meteorologists and everywhere in between so our goals and priorities are personal decisions. Hopefully you can find and receive lots of information here so you can make the best choice.
I guess my biggest concern with Davis was the recent posts I've seen on here and elsewhere about the purchase 5,6 years ago, and some folks reporting sudden quality degradation. (Interestingly, I had contacted them with a pre-sales question back in spring of this year, and yeah, it took them 3 months to reply, which I was a little surprised at.) Also having looked at their manuals, they 'recommend' some maintenance to be done every 6 months on some items. I won't lie, the frequency of that surprised me. While I know nothing is 'set and forget' these days, I was hoping that when I had everything mounted out in the field I would maybe need to get out there once a year or more, not sooner. For Ecowitt, I didn't see them list ANY maintenance in their manuals that I reviewed, which is also a worry. Heh.
I built my stuff around weewx and Home Assistant with a lot of MQTT for both, if it matters. Works fine.
Vince makes very good arguments and points out that you don't have to stick with just one brand. It can make a lot of sense to use different brands for different sensors. For example, if you want to also monitor refrigerators, freezers, and room temperatures, I think Ecowitt plus one of their gateways would be the way to go.
After getting some feedback from ya'll, I think I'm going to go the Weeex/RTL-SDR/Davis route for both stations, and then look into other sensors for the other items.
This will also allow me to add the other sensors later, once I get the main systems up and running. (Other sensors include the leaf wetness sensor, lightning, etc. that aren't as important for getting current weather stats.) It'll also allow me to start different threads on the other sensors and getting them connected up when I get to that point.
Related - while searching up some information, I came across 'Young' (youngusa.com) - they don't have a 'hardware' forum here; are they relatively new? Their equipment looks more commercial.
I'm also an admin here so if you did want to try and find your old account, even for curiosity's sake, send me a PM and I can help.
Oh, nono. Let all that potential embarrassment stay hidden away.
I'm not sure my previous posts would put me in a good light - I was a LOT less knowledgeable back then! Thanks tho!
