[NLRS] Tower Mounted Video Camera Immune to the sun.

[Doug Reed]

I do like Steve's suggestion about the relay and do-it-yourself
housing. I'd add some transzorbs on the power leads for sure. You can
find cameras and housings on Ebay and many other websites. Personally,
I like the SuperCircuits.com web site. I always thought they had
pretty good prices and a very good selection. I've got a couple of
commercial housings from somewhere that were configured to be purged
with nitrogen during assembly to prevent condensation. But they would
be too heavy for mounting on a dish.

If you are buying a camera for outdoors, remember to read the specs
and make sure the housing has a heater. The advertising department
usually figures that "outdoors" means "water resistant"  and temps
seldom get below freezing, and never below zero F. The heater will
keep the camera warm and stop condensation from forming on the lens
and glass window.

If you try the do-it-youself housing you can probably make it work
fine if you put a power resistor in the housing, near the lens, with a
40 degree snap thermodisc to turn it off above freezing. I've always
hoped that leaving the camera on would be heat enough, but I haven't
tried it. Most outdoor cameras also have a sun shield over the housing
to eliminate direct solar heating during the summer. The shield is
1/4" or 1/2" away from the housing so heat is carried away by air
movement rather than directly heating the housing. For the same reason
the housing is usually painted flat white.

Good luck!

73, Doug Reed, N0NAS.