Alaska: Boating Safety Providing boaters with weather conditions

Campbell Scientific's CR10X is the heart of a unique weather station project installed on the coast of southeastern Alaska. The small community of Petersburg is near the Stikine River delta, a major river on Alaska's rugged coastal range. The Stikine delta is a popular area for recreational and subsistence activities, but it is also infamous for its unusual and surprising weather patterns. The National Weather Service has no stations nor observations in the area.

In an effort to promote boating safety, the Petersburg, Alaska Volunteer Fire Department Search and Rescue headed up the project to install a weather station on the river delta. The station is easily called with a local telephone number and gives a 45 second voice announcement of real-time winds. Most importantly, the announcement includes a brief histogram to determine wind trends. Search and Rescue volunteer and project co-ordinator John Murgas states, "Quick and easy access to real-time wind conditions and trends on the Stikine delta makes for a more informed boater, who can then make better decisions concerning boating saftey."

Although the weather station is not within reach of any hardwired telephone service, it is within range of a local cellular telephone service, which provides the voice link into the telephone system. Campbell Scientific's COM300 phone modem and voice synthesizer are paired with a Motorola cellular transceiver. An R. M. Young 05106 Marine Grade Wind Monitor supplied by Campbell Scientific was chosen for this harsh Alaskan environment and is holding up well, according to Murgas. Temperature and barometric sensors were also provided by Campbell. System architecture, engineering, and assembly were all done by Campbell Scientific, with the complete package shipped to Petersburg on the regional mail plane. Local Search and Rescue volunteers did the installation in January, reaching the site with a combination of snowmobile and boat transportation. Murgas commented, "The installation went well. And the quality, responsiveness, and good old-fashioned courtesy of the Campbell technical support staff could not be better. They're like local Alaskans."