Long range wireless or other solution?

[Joe Bramblett <kd5nrh@xxxxxxxxx>]

Looking for something in a battery powered or 12V low-light camera with at
least 500ft range, or at least 6 hours built-in recording at no less than
10fps. No need for pan/tilt/zoom or anything else fancy, just good enough
to get a license plate on a slow moving (25mph tops) vehicle when placed
so that it will be directly behind the vehicle. Based on the road layout,
the vehicle should be within 20-30yards of the camera and facing almost
directly away at one point, and the plate should be within a roughly 10'
wide area unless they run off the road completely. Adding in the desire to
get the mailbox itself in frame, and we can call it 15' minimum required
FOV at 60-90', with resolution good enough to read a (most likely) Texas
black-on-retroreflective-white license plate.

We've been hoping to ID some mailbox vandals, but they seem to be bright
enough to avoid any boxes that are close enough to the houses to make them
easy to catch.  I've considered the digital wildlife cameras with IR
flash, but I'm not sure that they would record enough to get the vehicle
as it turns away.

Of course, they never show up when I'm sitting in a camouflaged blind with
a nightvision scope and flash camera.  I'd hate to use a visible-flash
camera unattended and find the mailbox smashed and camera stolen, though.