Foal cam reception is bad. Any ideas?

[Marty]

My mare Angel is getting ready to blow and seems that my foal cam is acting up.

I have two foal cams set up and both are giving very bad reception to the house.

They are good for 150 feet and my barn is only 50 feet from my back door!

They are fine one minute and the next, full of static, and goes all snowy and I loose the whole picture.

Something is interferring and we can't figure out what it could be. Could a couple of trees in the path to the barn cause this?

When a television commercial comes on, or when the phone rings, I also loose reception.

Hus had adjusted the antennas constantly and we don't have a clue what's going on.

This did not happen when we had it set up in the old barn a few years ago.

Any ideas?

Thank you in advance.

 

[JanBKS]

Marty, when I had wireless I had to put my receiver in line with a window and my transmitter where it would direct the signal to that window, and yes planes, big trucks and phones and microwaves and sometimes trees affect it.

If you have an inexpensive one it will be affected more than the more pricey ones, mine was pricey and it still was affected some.

You may have to move the transmitter and receiver so there is nothing in between them.

Hope that helps.

Jan

 

[Marty]

Yup Jan that sure does help. I got the little one moved to my back window and aimed it at the barn and poof, it's working great. Now to move the big one~! Many thanks!

 

[ChrystalPaths]

Oh gosh Marty, time for Angel! I'm so excited for you!!!

 

[Suzie]

We had the sames problems. We ended up running cable from the TV to the barn and putting the transmitter in the barn so the wireless cameras only have to work inside the barn. Solved our static problems. Evidently I was on the same frequency as my neighbor's phone......

My problem is lighting. I like my color camera but at night, even with 9 light bulbs on, it is dark. Black and white is okay.

Anyone use infrared lighting? How do you like that?

 

[hairicane]

When we had wireless cams the microwave wiped out the pix when in use and we had to find a different frequency for our cordless phones and some neighbor has something that would wipe our picture out totally. That usually happened almost all night when we really needed to see what was happening. We are now back to cameras with cords. Cant wait to see your new arrival when it comes!

 

[JanBKS]

I have several weatherproof night vision cams, outside and in the baby barn, as long as I have a light on in the baby barn you can see color, dont help with the grey horse and baby though, ha ha, they are grey night or day.

In the main barn I have the regular inside cams, they require a lot of light at night, I think I like the night vision ones better, no adjusting for focus and if you want color just put one light in there and its in color.

I got mine from CCTV Imports. also the higher resolution helps 480 or over is good. Although I think the night ones are a tad less than that.

Hope that helps.

Glad you got good reception Marty, Glad to help. Can't wait for pictures.

Jan

 

[alphahorses]

I finally gave up on the wireless. Found a night time outdoor security camera (not wireless) for about $50 at Walmart one day and thought "what the heck!".

The camera works GREAT! I have never had such absolute clear reception even in pitch black as I do with this camera. No more making mares sleep with a light on or running out to the barn when you think you see a foal only to find it's a pile of manure or a lump of hay! LOL

Came with either 100 or 150 feet of cable that was designed to be outside, so I ran a rope from the house to the barn, then strung the cable along the rope (ground was too frozen at the time to put it underground). Now that foaling season is over, I can simply pull it in and pack it away for next year.

The brand was Astek (or some variation on the spelling). I don't know if it can be hooked up to a computer yet or not, but took me only a few minutes to set it up. You know it's simple when the entire instructions are printed on something the size of a 3x5 card!