Due to recent vandalism at my cabin in Maine, I decided to add a video camera to watch the entrance area.  A friend gave me this Foscam FI8904W IP camera and an older Verizon Mifi 2200 hotspot.  I activated the hotspot for an additional $20 on my current account, sharing our 8gb data plan.  In order to route outside traffic to the camera, I am using a Cradlepoint CTR35.  The CTR35 connects via USB to the Mifi, powering the Mifi at the same time.

The system is going to run from my solar power system.  I already have a 150 A/h bank, but need to add additional solar panels.  My calculations show 105W of solar is needed for my location; I’ll add 200W to cover other use.  The total load for this entire system varies from 9.5W to 11.5W depending on whether the IR lights are on or off.  It should also go higher than this when sending an image.  The amplifier itself draws ~5W so if I can get by without it, I’ll leave it turned off.

Image viewed through the free Foscam iOS app on my iPhone

Cradlepoint CTR35.  I have the Ethernet port configured as a LAN port, which connects to the camera via a cable.  I didn’t care to use the Wifi function on the Foscam camera.  If I add additional cameras, I can put a switch here.  USB cable is going to the Mifi.  Power is to the 12V solar battery bank.

I have this Wilson cellular amplifier that came with my truck when I bought it.  It uses ~ 5W of power, but I think I’ll need the boost at the cabin.  Cell service is generally poor out there.

I have everything terminated in Anderson PowerPoles to make connection easy once I get to Maine and do the installation.  It also makes it easy to disconnect devices during troubleshooting.

The Foscam camera requires 5VDC for power.  I picked this DC-DC converter up from Amazon.com for $8.  So far it does the trick; we’ll see how long it lasts!

The Wilson cell booster.  This device uses an external antenna (I’m using a Yagi), and provides a local hotspot to the cell phone cradle.

Last year for Field Day I built a 6 meter, 4-element Yagi-Uda antenna for the W5YA team.  I never tried to match the antenna for 50Ω, and it compared poorly to Doc’s Hex Beam antenna.  This weekend, in anticipation of FD 2014, I decided to finally try and match the antenna.  I tried several designs.  My initial try was a hairpin match, which brought the 100Ω impedance up to 200Ω.  Then, I tried a 75Ω, 1/2 wavelength coax transformer as a 4:1 Balun.  I played with this a lot, but could not get it to match well enough.

Today I tried a parallel 75Ω match based on this page.  Based on my Yagi dimensions, this showed a resonant frequency around 48 MHz.  I shortened my driven element whips about 2″ and brought the antenna to a perfect (enough) match!