On the cost of an AWOS... They are cost prohibitive unless the airport
has state and federal grant money for the installation and the
upkeep... My field has one and it seems like the maytag repairman is
there about every 6 to 8 weeks... Ditto the NDB, though it has been
working about 3 months now, a new record... The biggest issues now
with the AWOS seems to be simple problems, like crud depositing on the
visual range sensors, or the wind direction sensor getting locked up
with ice, etc., whereas in the early going it was expensive circuit
boards going to that great repair shop in the sky... The biggest issue
with the NDB seems to be EMP from lightning blowing out the
transmitter - or simply tripping the circuit breaker, which still
requires the fixit guy to make a 100 mile trip to fix it... We users
rarely notice the amount of time and money it takes to keep all the
bells and whistles working... I can hardly wait for them to turn on
the new ILS, that should be fun to watch as it goes through the burn in
stages...

Denny