Erin Bauer and coworkers at Illinois State Water Survey have developed a method to modernize the precipitation network gauges and establish a radio network for real-time data transmission at reduced cost. The technology is geared towards collection sites where data service or satellite data service is not available, and instead data collection requires montly field visits. This technology provides an inexpensive solution (less than $300) for long term deployment. It consists of a radio hub that receives data from multiple station radios and software that parses the data, and send to the web client of near real time monitoring.