Hi everyone. I came accross this site not to long ago, i must say, what a wealth of information and knowledge you all are providing. Im looking for input on a propsal that was put before me last week. iv been asked to help put in place live feed web cams at many of our most popular boat launchs around puget sound. The cams would be available for online veiwing 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The intended purpose of the cams would be to help boaters determine weather and water conditions, launch line delays and curret ramp conditions. there would be a $9.99 per month fee to join. This will help cover installation, maintainance and general upkeep of the equipment. Im curious as to how many of you would be willing to pay the fee or would even find this service usefull? Any feedback would be helpfull. Thank you!

Nathan

Might be a bit steep at $9.99 a month but just think, you could probably make it up in a month or two by entering America's Funniest Home Video's!

I have seen boats dropped on the launch. I saw a guy launch his pickup at Ilwaco. All kinds of funny things happen. (funny as long as it's not you!) It can be quite a show.

Most local fishermen know what it's going to be like before getting to their normal launch site. It's not hard to figure out based on our limited openings for salmon, bottomfish etc. Certain days of the week, time of day and time of year all play a role. Personally I try to set my launch times before or after the crowds to avoid the hassle. Before I head out I check the weather forecast and actual conditions online so I know what it's going to be like. All this info is currently free on the web. Best of luck in your new venture

I would not pay for that (at least not $10 per month).
As stated above we usually know what's going on already. If it were free or close to that it would be interesting to see launches I haven't used before.
thanks,
dave

I like the idea, don't know for sure yet if I would join, but the entertainment value might make it worth it.

Nathan- Installing & maintaining online viewing cameras (webcams) is what i do professionally. I'm willing to share some insight. I've outlined a few things to consider
I think the biggest challenges will be:
1) getting permission from whomever owns and maintains the boat launch proprty (state parks, county, WDFW, city, etc...
2) getting your new property owner to agree to pay for phone service in which to support your ISP connection over.
3) proximity of a phone line to the boat launch
(you shouldn't assume launches have phone lines nearby)
4) who is going to pay the coinage for labor, material, ISP costs and camera & broadcast hardware for each location?
5) who is going to maintain the system i.e. (drive out and fix the system when it goes offline or the camera wigs out? trust me it WILL go offline). @ 100.00 a truck role for a professional CCTV tech to go out to fix, maintainence costs really add up. To do it yourself you'r still looking a tank of gas and your time (labor) to fix...

all in all it's a decent idea, but i see many roadblocks ahead for you...

I would sign up for this service if all the boatlaunches I frequent were operational on this service.

If you need assistance pursuing this project please contact me.

I use the Everett launch and the only problem I've ever had was finding available parking. Even on the busiest day, it doesn't take long to launch.

Would your service include the amount of available parking?

Actually, even if you were able to show the parking lot, I doubt that I would sign up for the service.

There is a pretty good Bay Cam here. It give a pretty good idea of conditions out of Everett. Look on the right corner of the page for "live bay cam". It's right above the Harrison Ford ad

While its a neat idea I think the price is too high. I personally wouldn't pay that much for such a service.

its a cool (well lukewarm) idea, But if I am going to use it its going to be paid for by a banner ad, Wich means it had better be marketed like crazy....I do not know how many hits a day it would take to pay for it?

Gee,

I'd bet the game dept would sign up. What a cool way to count boats. And each boat is four heads. and each head is two fish.

Great idea, but I think the fee will keep most people away. I rarely need the ramp info badly enough to subscribe at $10/month. You can often get weather info other places.