Best hand-held wind meter?

Chill dism - Sandy & I have been passing forum insults for many a long day. All in good fun. Besides not much of what I say here on SB is in any way serious.
And you gotta remember too .... that unless SG really is the real son of Mr Harry Groper - the guy who knocked up his girlfriend at Safety Bay one drunken Sat night then called his son Sandy as a memorial - then an attack on an anonymous forum tag is hardly personal.
And Sandy - if that Harry guy really is your dad its a pity he didnt know to do it in the afternoon. It would have been much safer sex then



OK OK I checked. (so seriously now)
Mine is a Kestrel 1000. Blue cw cover ( & a bit of string to indicate direction)
Good reading as long as its pointing directly into the wind.
Mate has a 360 deg whirly gig on top (cw backlight ) type which reads similar accuracy but more consistent range. And its easier to get right. Dont know the brand.
From memory mine was ex US about $150 a few years ago. Seen them in Oz for around $100/$120 since ?

ps: whatever - its just another one of those toys you dont really need imo. Comes in handy to win (or lose) bets occassionally.

This will be handy if you run out of batteries .. the trusty ol' Beaufort scale ...

10 knots or less
--Land: Wind felt on face; leaves rustle; ordinary vanes moved by wind.
--Water: wavelets, ripples formed but do not break: A glassy appearance maintained.

11-16 knots
--Land: Raises dust and loose paper; small branches are moved.
--Water: Small waves - becoming longer; fairly frequent white horses.

17-21 knots
--Land: Small trees in leaf begin to sway; crested wavelets form on inland waters
--Water: Moderate waves, taking a more pronounced long form; many white horses are formed - a chance of some spray

22-27 knots
--Land: Large branches in motion; whistling heard in telephone wires; umbrellas used with difficulty.
--Water: Large waves begin to form; the white foam crests are more extensive with probably some spray

28-33 knots
--Land: Whole trees in motion; inconvenience felt when walking against wind.
--Water: Sea heaps up and white foam from breaking waves begins to be blown in streaks along direction ofwind.

Full table here:
www.seabreeze.com.au/Members/Help/Beaufort.aspx

Select to expand quote

Are you Macgyverwell done

For wind meter owners

www.quizrocket.com/nerd-test/

For Airush Geoff

www.quizrocket.com/GAY-test/

Are you calling me a hater?

Ipso facto Geoff

Makes me happy seeing you trolling up seabreeze puppet.

P.S there are a LOT of better things for you to spend your money on than a windmeter, seeing you can get by just fine without one. Pretty much just out there for the Inspector Gadgets.

P.P.S I still can't work out if Sandgroper is taking the piss with his invention, can someone help me out here.

Well maybe I am starting to go nerdy, wanting a wind meter .

I want to compare actual beach wind readings to online readings (which in my experience so far is often very different) so in the future I can tell from home (which is miles away) whether it is worth heading for the water and what gear to take, so I dont
a). waste my time and petrol driving 45mins, and
b). take extra gear to sit in my car as thief bait.

I have also been getting to a lot of new/unknown spots recently where the usual beaufort scale wind markers I use have not been right once I got the kite in the air.

A compass is to document beach orientation at these new spots, so I can figure out for future what wind direction works or not.

So yes, I am nerding up! Thanks to those with useful suggestions and I may have to get in touch with our resident McGyver!

I have two hand held wind meters - one 13m and one 9m. I find if the 13m meter doesn't fly well, wind is less than 12 kts, if 9m pulls me off the ground its over 30 kts .
Best wind meter ever - white caps = kiting.

Hey Nic,

I will still talk to you if you become a wind nerd.

Rob

POAS has a problem with people who have an opinion different to his own.

Every day millions of old working PC's are discarded to land fill. The people most culpible for this envionmental timebomb are the ones who will go out and invest in the latest new electronic technology as soon as it comes along and discard perfectly good older technology. Electronics is environmentally among the most toxic to put into landfill (arsenic, germanium (etc) heavy metals).

Recycling an old multimeter and unused PC fan is not "taking the piss" and is not an "invention". Its "recycling". Some people are yet to understand that recycling is a way of life, not a single act.

I get a good result from this combo of old bits (see above), it cost me nothing (more) and took less time to build than shopping round for one. I could spend more time calibrating it into knots - but what for? The underlying technology to any windmeter is volts. There are only 3 wind levels that matter, and it has saved me several times from going out in too strong or too light winds, and in a small way also helps save the environment.

The Dick Smith wind meter is as good as any but the moving coil meter (analog) display works much better than the digital display for fluctuating wind readings. Digital displays tend to raise unrealistic accuracy expectations in wind sampling neophytes. Windspeed sampling is always an estimation only. (See BOM website).

Paying $90+ for a wind meter is fine if you need to be told windspeed in knots. A lot of people dont even know how to use a wind meter let alone a multimeter - its no good reading windspeed in the car park and complaining about accuracy. A windmeter is not for you if you are not prepared to learn how to sample wind.

Omnidirectional meters seem to be overkill for this application (kiting), and you'd just pay more for less information (ie no sense of wind direction).

If you want temperature, Bunnings have a garden thermometer for about $7 (yes, I keep one in my car). Tie it to a piece of string and throw it in the water for water temp.

In short DIY and start saving the planet from the environmental catastrophe now upon us.

I nominate Sandgroper for the award for funniest posts of all time.

I truly love it.

With millions of discarded PC's we could give everyone in Australia a Macgyver wind meter. Thanks for the smiles, I never meant to truly offend.

Nerds, gays and South Australians.

Who doesn't hate them?

The simple solution would be to attach the wind meter to the kite and find out.

The higher up you go the windier it gets. This is a well known fact when designing skyscrapers.

Wicked - thanks. I was going to run out and invest in the latest technology. Instead, I think I'll root around for a few hours building my own from recycled materials (which will involve driving to my local landfill facility, purchasing some lead-filled solder to do the connections etc) and I'll be "saving the planet from the environmental catastrophe now upon us".

Of course I could have spent those hours planting trees, picking up dolphin-stranglers off the beach, or at work (then contributing the extra $ I'd have earnt to a coordinated approach to environmentalism like Greenpeace or WWF). But surely none of those would have the same impact as 1 less PC-fan in landfill!!!

Also, what about the impact your idea will have on the second-hand multi-meter market and the associated flow-on effects? It'll be the global financial crisis all over again!!!

Nice and clever idea, but claiming it is a contribution to the environmantal woes of the world is drawing a pretty long bow (or C )!!