Me and a few classmates have been assigned a project on campus. The goal is to come up with a way to transmit information from a camera that's in a bat house about 500 yards away from the closest building. My group decided to go with an directional antenna. Any ideas on what eco-friendly technology to use? How would you go about it?
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1You may want to request (or determine for yourselves) what the definition of "eco-friendly" is. In some circles, a wand blasting RF radiation is not eco-friendly.– SmithersMar 16, 2015 at 15:30
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Are we sure that the wavelength of the directional antenna isn't audible to the bats?– HALMar 16, 2015 at 20:49
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Your first question is a shopping question. The second is calling for opinions. Without specifying devices or technologies, there are simply too many possible answers.– RickyMar 16, 2015 at 23:36
3 Answers
Two options come to mind.
One: Get a cable(Fiber probebly) up there..
Two: Call NASA(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_Communications_Relay_Demonstration)
:P
Cool project. The first thing that comes to my mind is combining an 802.11 device with a directional antenna and a solar panel. Ubiquiti makes some inexpensive 802.11 equipment aimed at the Wireless ISP market that would be perfect for your project. Specifically, their airMax product line is well suited for creating bridges over long distances.
Check out this link: Using a 30W solar panel and 22Ah Battery to power a Ubiquiti radio
The Loco M2 referenced in the link above would probably be more than enough for your application. You would need one on each end of the connection.
You have several ways to do that:
1) MW antenna or unidirectional of other type with a ptp link. This could be eco-friendly since the signal has to meet allowed power limits and it's spreaded in a single directiob and a close angle of transmission.
2) LTE modems with site-to-site vpn (ipsec or open vpn) with static ip from your ISP or myddns domain on your dynamic public IP.
But these are general ways, knowing what's in the middle between these two points could bring elements to create alternate solutions.