LA CROSSE WS-9035 LA CROSSE WS-9035 Price: £79.95 Type of product: Weather Station Reviewer: Simon Ridley Date of review: 7 December 2003 Introduction This is a brand new wireless weather station from La Crosse and retails for around £80, somewhat cheaper than many weather stations offering similar features. Its format will be familiar to anybody familiar with this type of product, with a clear and feature packed LCD display which shows the time and date (automatically electronically calibrated from a caesium atomic clock in Frankfurt), moon phase, date, indoor temperature and humidity. A display linked to the external thermometer and anemometer along with a pictorial representation of the weather conditions expected in the next 24 hours completes the display. Setting up and using Setting the station up is quite simple. The anemometer links to the external sensor via a ten metre wire connection meaning that they do not have to be located too near each other. Unfortunately during the review period there was virtually no wind, but when there was a breeze the readings appeared plausible. It is obviously important to locate the anemometer where the wind can flow freely – the manufacturers suggest a pole, and ties are supplied to effect this. The sensor should be located no more than 25m from the base station for optimum performance. As is always the case the functions take some time to get used to, but after a bit of practice it is easy to toggle between the readings which apart from those mentioned previously include the dew point and wind chill temperature. The wind information is comprehensive. It provides details of the wind speed and gust display along with a record of the maximum gust and the time that occurred. There is also a horizontal bar graph representing the wind speed according to the Beaufort scale. It’s a shame that there’s no barometer, but that is hardly a surprise given the competitive price. In addition to all the above there is an alarm with a snooze facility, and the display is backlit whenever a button is pressed. Summary The WS-9035 is a stylish and solidly built weather station, with a number of features that you would not expect at this price. It is intuitive and easy to set up, and represents excellent value for money.