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It seems our SOWACS Devil's Advocate has overstepped the mark with his first (and last) post of this type. To prevent any possible flame wars that are of no use to sowacs, no further such emails will be sent to the group. As the owner of sowacs, I have taken this decision in the interest of the list. The following information regarding sowacs has been provided: For SOWACS readers interested in how Aquaflex works, you may like to refer to US Patent 5148125 or John Johnson's SOWACS contribution of 12 August, which contains an excellent summary of the Aquaflex principle. Interested readers may also like to seek out the following references, which refer to a lengthy and detailed independent investigation initiated by the University of Melbourne and Goulburn Murray Water (a supply authority). This initially examined the performance of Aquaflex (pre-commercial prototypes), EnviroSCAN, Microlink and neutron probes, then selected Aquaflex and EnviroSCAN for extended field trials: Calibration of the Aquaflex Soil Moisture-Monitoring Unit - Ryan Krake, Masters Project, University of Melbourne, Australia. A laboratory comparison of some currently available soil moisture monitoring devices - J P Tyndale-Biscoe and H Malano. Agricultural Engineering Australia, Vol 22 Nos 1 & 2 (1993). On farm irrigation scheduling decision making using weather forecast: Interim Report - ML Wood, HM Malano and TA McMahon (1996). International Conference on Agricultural Engineering, Madrid 23-26 September 1996, Vol 2. Mark Wood's web page http://www.civag.unimelb.edu.au/~mlw/irrigate.htm displays some of the Aquaflex data collected in the above trials. The Australian researchers also produced a series of very comprehensive reports on their findings for the project funders, Goulburn Murray Water and the Land and Water Research Development Corporation (Australia). I doubt there have been many more extensive and detailed investigations into soil moisture sensor performance. Hopefully, the final report will find its way into published papers soon.