Looking at the maps, it appears there are no stations in South America. My daughter lives in Lima, Peru and it occurs to me that a station there might be more useful than one more station in the U.S. midwest.
The impression I have from what I've read here is that the kits are dispensed first to those in the most sparsely covered areas, so were I to install a station in Lima, I would be far more likely to get a kit?
What about access to a server? Getting data from Peru to North America might involve a significant delay. If it's any indication, using Skype between Lima and Chicago is a very iffy thing.
Would there be a difficulty in maintaining the station since I would not be there to tend to it regularly? I know the kits are not plug and play, but once I built it and tested it for proper operation, could it be left alone for extended periods?
A final challenge would be customs - I can only imagine trying to explain what I am doing with the the circuit boards to people at the airport.
As an aside, lightning is alien to Lima. My daughter's husband, from Lima, was fascinated by a thunderstorm when he came to the states as he had never seen one! The weather there is entirely driven by Pacific Ocean on shore winds - lots of humidity, mild temps, little rain, wet pavements every morning from surface cooling and no real convective activity, in other words, for any weather buff - BORING!
Hi,
There are 5 stations currently in South America. 3 are in Colombia and 2 are in Brazil around Rio de Janeiro. They are listed under the North America Region.
The system has its own web server, so it just needs an internet connection. The servers it would communicate with are located in Germany.
As for customs, it shouldn't be a problem, I would think, as the kit is un-assembled when it arrives initially. Plus, I wouldn't think it would be too much of an issue if it needed to be shipped assembled, either, considering the amount of boards shipped by Dell, HP, etc on a daily basis.
Hope this helps,
John Sacrey
Benton, AR, USA
Thanks, John. When I mentioned server, I was thinking of the server that collects the station information and does the calculations before distributing the results...unless I am wrong in how I understand the system to work, that isn't done at the stations themselves.
on assembly - my plan would be to put it all together here in the states where I have all my tools, test it and then take it to Lima.
(2014-08-28, 17:54)clif9710 Wrote: [ -> ]Thanks, John. When I mentioned server, I was thinking of the server that collects the station information and does the calculations before distributing the results...unless I am wrong in how I understand the system to work, that isn't done at the stations themselves.
on assembly - my plan would be to put it all together here in the states where I have all my tools, test it and then take it to Lima.
All processing of the data being received is done on the servers in Germany. Each station receiving the signals does some filtering before it is sent on to the server.
You must also have a 24/7 Internet connection via a router. Kits have been assembled in one place and then moved to other locations for permanent installation so doing what you are proposing to do would not be a problem. Being a single station in Peru, at first, will be less than ideal but, if you can get others there to install stations, effectiveness of those stations will greatly help the overall network around the world.
Does Peru have 110V ac/60Hz or some other commercial power? That will have to be taken into consideration when purchasing the kit components. You will be able to remotely make adjustments to the station however, it's the initial setup and positioning that can only be done in the environment it will be running in. You may run into multiple sources of interference and would have to locate and attempt to mitigate each one of them individually by various positioning of your antenna. Do you have the time to do that? It could take weeks or more to find the right spot.
Very helpful, W3DRM (I am WA7MAD). No, Peru doesn't have 110V - adapters have to be used. I'm not sure about the power line frequency. I would have the time to get it set up in the time I would be there, it's the frequency of access that would be a problem thereafter, so being able to remotely check on and adjust parameters later would be perfect!
Yep... you access the controller from a web interface.... set up a password, put it on local router port forward, with a static address, and go from there... just make sure the modem's address doesn't change...
(2014-08-29, 18:25)clif9710 Wrote: [ -> ]Very helpful, W3DRM (I am WA7MAD). No, Peru doesn't have 110V - adapters have to be used. I'm not sure about the power line frequency. I would have the time to get it set up in the time I would be there, it's the frequency of access that would be a problem thereafter, so being able to remotely check on and adjust parameters later would be perfect!
Peru has 220Vac, 60Hz. Adapters are required. See the following link:
http://whatplug.info/from/usa/to/peru
The Powerstream 5 volt power supply would be ideal for both the US and Peru. It comes with various adapter plugs and works on both 110 and 220 lines.
http://www.powerstream.com/AC-1898.htm