A long-boiled idea of having a camera next to my antenna at the remote radio site is now reality and I can literally monitor the horizon :)
I have long experience about webcams in general, I've had few at our summer place almost for a decade now, recording the conditions in a fixed interval. It's very nice to observe the differences of a same day yearly, how much snow and how much no snow at all for example on christmas eve :)
I installed a Ubiquiti AirCam to my antenna setup, the camera turns with the antennas and looks at the horizon. Many times when doing some antenna work at the roof, I've admired the beautiful skies and clouds and hoped to be able to observe them more often. At the seafront, cloud formations and generally weather fronts are spectacular to view. Hopefully I can grab some good snapshots in the future!
The camera provides JPG snapshots as seen below, but also a MP4 stream for live viewing. Resolution is not the best possible but it works for now!
I can now also monitor how the antennas (well, only the static omni antennas on the other pole) are doing in high wind situations. I also thought of putting a small wind sock to the tip of the 1296MHz yagi antenna (the one which is on the right side of the picture), so I could more easily adjust the antennas towards wind.
There are not yet publicly accessible address available for the snapshots. I'll try to make one so you could see how's the weather here, and see to which direction the antennas and the camera are pointing. I can extract the position from the antenna rotator system, but superimposing that to the picture needs some work still.
I have long experience about webcams in general, I've had few at our summer place almost for a decade now, recording the conditions in a fixed interval. It's very nice to observe the differences of a same day yearly, how much snow and how much no snow at all for example on christmas eve :)
I installed a Ubiquiti AirCam to my antenna setup, the camera turns with the antennas and looks at the horizon. Many times when doing some antenna work at the roof, I've admired the beautiful skies and clouds and hoped to be able to observe them more often. At the seafront, cloud formations and generally weather fronts are spectacular to view. Hopefully I can grab some good snapshots in the future!
The camera provides JPG snapshots as seen below, but also a MP4 stream for live viewing. Resolution is not the best possible but it works for now!
I can now also monitor how the antennas (well, only the static omni antennas on the other pole) are doing in high wind situations. I also thought of putting a small wind sock to the tip of the 1296MHz yagi antenna (the one which is on the right side of the picture), so I could more easily adjust the antennas towards wind.
I hope to catch something special through the camera too. It's not too long to the new year,when this should be quite good observation view of all the fireworks. No matter which direction the camera points, I'm quite sure :)
There are not yet publicly accessible address available for the snapshots. I'll try to make one so you could see how's the weather here, and see to which direction the antennas and the camera are pointing. I can extract the position from the antenna rotator system, but superimposing that to the picture needs some work still.
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