As with all scientific data collection, we have faced many a peril with our UV monitor. When we first started setting it out for an hour a day it was vandalized. People would flip it over to prevent it from working. To prevent this we changed its location to a more discrete location. The only problem with the new spot is that we tend to forget to bring it in. By leaving it out we sabotage our own data collection. The next problem we ran into was water damage. Though we kept it in a plastic sandwich bag, water leaked in and temporarily broke the monitor. We took it apart and let it dry. It took us two days to fix the problem. About a week after we fixed it, the batteries went dead. The next step was finding a supplier for the type of batteries we needed. We finally found one and the remainder of the shipment came in. Then it was back to dealing with the daily, smaller trials.

-Casey