Cell Interpherence

[DuaneMurphy]

Hello Everybody,

I am trying to get an understanding of what is going on with cell towers. I have seen a couple of Phantoms fly around the towers various mono-poles, but when they get directly in front of an antenna, it is like the are locked into a tractor beam and control with the unit is lost for a period as it is pulled towards the tower.

I understand that the towers should be on 800mhz and 1900mhz and the phantom and s1000 should be on 2.4 and 5.8 for flight and video.

Is there some sort of guide or distance that is a 'safe' distance from these towers?

Thank You

 

[sbjr0203]

I've had no issues, been as close as 2' from face and no interferiance. Not sure what the issue may be, you by chance know the carriers antenna been noticing the issues on? Could look at their RF pattern to see if it's causing the issue

 

[DuaneMurphy]

The last antenna was a SPRINT antenna. Am just really confused as I have gotten different answers when I ask.
I am told that cell towers may cause interpherence but no body seems to know why. I understand that their frequencies are 800 and 1900 MHz so that seems to be very different ranges from what the phantoms work on.

Could the tower be I yep wring with the GPS reception?

Thank you

 

[sbjr0203]

Sprints operating on 1900 & 2.5ghz (that's if they've completed the 2.5 upgrade) even with that you shouldn't be having any issues, I do it almost daily doing tower inspections and haven't had any issues. Only thing that could ever be an issue is if say you were in the center of a self-support (lattice) tower, the tower itself would interfere with the GPS.

 

[DeweyAXD]

You are playing with fire around any cell tower or radio tower.

Consider (figurativley) that when you take off your TX is barking loud 2.4ghz orders at your Phantoms RX.... as you travel further away those orders get harder to hear for the RX. You up to a cell tower that has all kinds of 2.xx frequencies coming out of it. 95% of them are on frequencies the RX can't even list to. Then there are a few that are.... however it doesn't mean it will instantly listen as the data packet in the frequency might not actually translate to a useable movement (like 'ascend' or 'go right' etc).

Then suddenly you hit one that does translate. Your Phantom RX will hear that a LOT louder than it hears your TX all those metres away and it will then assume the signal is actually your TX... by by birdy.

The point here is that you can fly for days near these things and never have an issue. Technically if you know it is not on your frequency (2.4ghz for P2) then you should be safe.... but is it ever worth that risk?

If you want to be sure get an RF Explorer: http://www.amazon.co.uk/douself-Explore ... B00JB4IJKO

This will tell you what signals are near you and then you can decide if it is safe to fly.