Development of a Scalable Weather Monitoring System Using Two-way Radios

Abstract

This paper presents the development and implementation of a weather monitoring system that is both low-cost and not reliant on power from the mains. The researchers made use of two-way radio as the system’s means of communication. The system is also scalable, that is, additional stations can be connected to the system to extend the range and more monitoring stations can be added. The weather monitoring system is composed of Remote Stations that collect data from different locations, and a Command Center that collects all data from the remote stations, displays the current data on a Graphical User Interface (GUI) and stores previous data in a data base. The stations communicate with each other over the two-way radio via Dual-tone Multi-frequency (DTMF) signals. Relaying was also employed in this system, meaning a command/data from one station passes the data to the next station, then to the next, until the command/data reaches the intended station. Testing results show that the system was able to transmit weather data accurately within a distance of 1 kilometer between stations using an omnidirectional antenna. Communication over longer distances can be achieved using directional antennas.