Dear slavetothelight and WeatherCat fans,
So while a Davis Vantage Pro 2 is the obvious answer to my question, I thought I'd get the opinions of the crew here.
Well since you are running WeatherCat, your choices are a bit limited. Normally folks run away screaming from the price of a Davis Vantage Pro-2, but you mention it up-front. If you can cope with the cost, you will be rewarded by a very tough package that is probably more expandable than you'll ever be able to use, and will give you trouble free operation for many years.
I've been critical of Davis because they are very slow to take advantage of the latest technology. However, they are a privately owned company with clearly a conservative outlook. When you are building weather instruments, maybe that is really a very good thing.
If you have watched this forum at all, folks are having some problems with Vantage Vues. Between that and the limitation of an
all-in-one instrument package, it certainly isn't the best choice. If you want to give yourself something for Christmas that will keep giving for years to come, shop around for the best price and get a VP-2. You may want still more from Davis, but you are unlikely to ever be sorry for the purchase.
Cheers, Edouard
P.S. One of our WeatherCat regulars, Steve Morris has recommended Archer's Trading Post for buying Davis equipment at very attractive prices.
http://www.archertradingpost.comIf you decide to go Davis, you might check on their prices to see.