This paper presents the hardware of a new polarimetric pulse Doppler X band meteorological radar designed to be used with a high efficient software ZPHI (presented in a companion paper) in order to yield high precision meteorological and hydrological data. The development of the instrument results from a tight cooperation between European research institutes and private firms each partner having a specific know how.In this unattended instrument dual polarization and dual receiving channels are used simultaneously. The antenna with ultra low sidelobes in both polarizations is an in-house conception offset-fed paraboloid dish. The 50 kW peak power magnetron transmitter is designed in order to have a long lifetime. Both receiving channels signals are digitized under 14 bits at the IF level and processed by an ENIGMA II digital Doppler Signal Processor, an ultra high speed performance weather radar signal processor. The FROG radar data computer software yields the first level meteorological data and the ZPHI rain profiling algorithm leads directly to the important meteorological and hydrological informations.Maintenance aspects are carefully taken into account already at design stage. The radar is completely portable and can be quickly installed at almost any site.An important design feature has been to achieve a low cost solution which is affordable for services like city hydrology and water management, sewage facilities, airports final approach zone, and as a fill-in for blind area of weather service networks.