Cell phone towers and power lines
- Thread starter tvleaker
- Start date
Having worked for a major electrical utility, how close depends on the voltage. A 500KV transmission line should be very visable and a minimum of 40' feet should be fine. They give off of a LOT of static, which could cause problems. Other big transmission lines are: 230KV and 115KV. These have a large clearance, with trees kept cut back quite a bit from the lines, so no trees could fall on them.
The real danger is not from highly visible transmission lines, but from distribution lines. They vary in voltage, but 12KV is most common. Too be extra safe, I recommend a 20' clearance. Then there is the danger of ground wires which are above the actual distribution lines.
Then, you have cable, phone lines and 230V, 3 phase 'drop lines' going to houses. These shouldn't be a problem if you maintain a 10' clearance. The danger, that I see is using FPV. But, maintaining a height of 40' will keep you safe from the latter. Transmission lines are much higher than distribution lines. But, they are very visable.
The real danger is not from highly visible transmission lines, but from distribution lines. They vary in voltage, but 12KV is most common. Too be extra safe, I recommend a 20' clearance. Then there is the danger of ground wires which are above the actual distribution lines.
Then, you have cable, phone lines and 230V, 3 phase 'drop lines' going to houses. These shouldn't be a problem if you maintain a 10' clearance. The danger, that I see is using FPV. But, maintaining a height of 40' will keep you safe from the latter. Transmission lines are much higher than distribution lines. But, they are very visable.
PhantomFanatic has a good list of places to avoid. It looks like we were in the same job at one time. For me it was a long time ago. If you start to climb a tower that has 345,000 volts going through the wires and the hair on your arms and neck start to stand up, it well tells you to get down and not fly your quad anywhere near them. I have three phases of 14,400 volts running past my house and they have not caused me any problems. I sure do not fly very close to them.
Here in Thailand, we have these to deal with this mess everywhere to try and avoid:
And communication towers like this every this all over the place, I can see 2 from my window within 1 mile of each other
And communication towers like this every this all over the place, I can see 2 from my window within 1 mile of each other
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I have seen on this forum recently a post where the guy proved it was a directional dish like type that caused him to loose control when he flew into its 'beam'. He repeated the flight path to prove it. Sorry for the non techy terms.
Happyflyer said:
I don't know if you did the same, but we had to do switching on,those voltages. When I started in 1973, we used wooden poles (very heavy!) to reach up and touch 500KV. Then we changed to fiberglass poles, but through this pole, I touched all voltages. You finally get used to it.
I hated even walking under 500KV structures in our substations. The static electricity was VERY intense! Touching a grounded structure was very electrifying! Pun intended.
Happyflyer said:
That is the winner! I've never seen such a rat's nest of wires! Ours didn't look like that! Maybe an itty bitty drone could fly in, but not out.
It was 1972 when I went into electrical construction. Most of our work was construction and nothing was "hot." A few times stringing wire on one side of towers with the other side energized, that sure caused shock problems. The last few years of that work was distribution and that was "hot." Best "fun" was when an apprentice lineman opened a cutout and the arc followed the fuse holder all the way down to the bottom of its swing. Arc broke just as movement stopped. Interesting when you were 3 feet from it.PhantomFanatic said:
Never did any substation work, but it sure looked interesting.Keep away from hot wires and enjoy flying.
This is near my house (150.000 Volts)
No problem at all
[youtube]https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rvzqHhZSEtY[/youtube]
No problem at all
[youtube]https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rvzqHhZSEtY[/youtube]
I counted about 32-34 insulators. Here in the USA a 345,000 volt line only need 17 in a string. I put up many of them. With so many insulators are you sure of that voltage?M.Tigelaar said:This is near my house (150.000 Volts)
No problem at all
Also, you would never get me to fly that close.
Happyflyer said:I counted about 32-34 insulators. Here in the USA a 345,000 volt line only need 17 in a string. I put up many of them. With so many insulators are you sure of that voltage?M.Tigelaar said:This is near my house (150.000 Volts)
No problem at all
Also, you would never get me to fly that close.
You are right
They are made for 380.000 Volt
But they are still on 150.000 Volts
This was even closer, with the "old" Vision non plus
Pure pilot error (no glasses)
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BiZotUlfZ5Q
N017RW
Premium Pilot
tvleaker said:
The danger is different between cell towers and transmission lines. With cell towers you can have focused radio energy that can cause control loss at quite a distance.
With transmission lines the risk would be causing a fault path for current. This is more likely to happen near residential lines where the size of the phantom is much closer to the distance between conductors or insulators. With the very large transmission lines the clearances between lines and anything else is much larger than the body of the phantom. There is some risk of damage from static but that is not so high.
Risk aside its still not a good idea to fly near either of them. If something happened and your rig became entangled in the structure even if it caused no issue with the utility it would not be a good thing.
I don't think they do. I would just think run another line750r said:BlackTracer said:
Man could you imagine trying to troubleshoot anything in their WOW
