Setting up a tower in southern Brazil with a Sensorgnome. See comments about noise and 166 frequency. I’m questioning whether I should be setting this up for 434 Hz. Basically, just want to support birding community and monitoring along the whole coast. Thinking of three 9-element yagi antennas and a universal. Any feedback and help would be appreciated. Might be making my own antennas down there.
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Awesome! The number of antennas really depends on factors like location (in which direction are you likely to intercept migrating birds), tower space (those 166 Yagis are BIG), and cost. In general Motus really encourages to set-up “dual mode” stations, i.e. both 166 and 434.
There are very few stations in your general part of the world, so any addition will be very welcome! The detections I see in Paraguay are all 166Mhz, but they have some dual-mode stations.
My experience with range is that omnis are rarely worth the effort due to limited range. If you site you station directly at a spot that attracts birds (pond, wetland , wildlife reserve) then it makes sense, otherwise, I’m skeptical.
If you need any help figuring things out please ask!
Tower is here Google Maps
Need lots of help. Hopefully corporation will be paying for this. Working on a quote from Compudata for SensorGnome setup. Not sure what do about antennas. I’m in US - Mass., could build them down there. Reserve is 1 mile from coast. We’re half way between tower in Buenos Aires and the ones on the north coast. Not sure Paraguay is functional still. Have 40-50 ft tower in place with power and Internet at base. Hard to find antennas down there. Have detailed plans for a PLC-1669
Is the Sensorgnome going to be inside a building or outdoors? If inside it’s really not that much to put it together, but it does take some fiddling to mount this&that.
Looks like you really need a good antenna to point south to the inlet area, and maybe a second pointing north? Pretty cool looking spot (in Google maps :-).
I thought one up the beach, another down, another to the WSW towards the bay. Not worried about Pelican box mounting and all that. Cords up through bottom so water stays out more. Not sure how to get antennas. Thinking of making them from stock. Not sure how to get the driver element. I see some designs where parts are isolated from the pole, but the ones I’m used to seeing are all aluminum and most everything connected but the center part of the driver. Coastal winds and rain an issue. Might upgrade pole to thick-walled EMT, but my design plans would need to be changed. Looks like tower is really 10m tall.
Hi John, As much as possible we encourage people to support both tag types when installing new stations. It isn’t always possible, and it does add some cost, but it adds the most value to the network generally.
As mentioned, the PLC1669 are quite large (10 ft long), which can make them difficult to mount on certain structures while still maintaining proper spacing between them. There are smaller options that may work better in your situation, with some tradeoffs when it comes to performance. As Thorsten mentioned, an omni antenna usually isn’t all that valuable at a general purpose station and are usually used when there is nearby tagging going on.
Getting materials such as antennas can be difficult and varies by country. Some are relatively straightforward to ship to, whereas others are prohibitively expensive or too difficult to navigate the customs process. I’m not sure where Brazil sits on that spectrum. Often the best option is to try to coordinate with people who are flying into the area and have them carry the pieces in checked luggage.
Sounds like I’m going to just have to do more on-the-ground homework this year and maybe get it installed for next year. I need to check height and rigor of tower. I’ll also look into materials.
I’m not really familiar with any variations in antennas with respect to the two frequencies. Issues that complicate it are the 60% tariff in bringing stuff into the country. I’ll just get the port to pay for everything and have it shipped there. If the tower is adequate, they might abide, otherwise the project is a little questionable.
Valid project, as there are none down that coast until Buenos Aires. Thanks for input. Any US sources for the antennas would be helpful. Let you know how I do.