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I thought Amateur Radio Operators
may like to have the capability of remotely viewing
a location some distance from them. It
could be useful in a number of ways. eg.
viewing the condition of antennas remotely
during a storm. You will have your own
reasons for its use. The Remote
Camera shown is used to send 'live video' back to our home Qth from
our property
when it is unattended. It is located at the back window
of the shed and faces the water troughs where the kangaroos and
other animals and birds have a drink. It is turned
on and off remotely using an SMS switch which
also turns the radios on and off for
remote operation. (This particular SMS
relay switch has 4 separate switches.)
So, when I want to have a
look at the water troughs from the
home Qth in Adelaide, 150 klms away, or the
weather conditions there, I just turn
the camera on using my cell phone to
send the SMS switch an SMS message and
then connect to it via the Internet and
have a look at the picture. This IP
camera uses a dynamic web address because
it is a wireless Internet connection at
the property. The camera, which I purchased
from Jaycar, is not expensive as it
cost about $100 Australian. It also has
infra red and pan and tilt capabilities.
In other words, you can easily turn it
around to view a wide area. Being a cheap camera, the picture quality
is not that good but even so, having
this capability is terrific because you can
see the conditions of the remote location
in present time. It is much easier to
set up a remotely controlled camera, than
a remotely controlled radio. The page about remotely
controlling Amateur Radios may be helpful in
setting up a remote camera like this too.
If you intend to use a wireless
Internet connection, as this camera does,
then you will still need to address the 'CGN'
problem though. The
Remote link is at the bottom of this page.
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