Cell tower interference?

[Cometstorm]

Wife and I are studying a home move.

We’re on three heavily wooded acres, so flying is tough (P3A).

The new property is four open acres with a lot of open adjoining undeveloped land.

But there is a high cell tower (I assume that’s what it is) about a quarter mile away.

Could that cause flight problems?

 

[dirkclod]

Well you will hear different members views on this and has been discussed since
I have been a member here .I am bad to try stuff myself like flying when the KP
index is high and so on. This was 2 years ago with a P3S and is My view on it .
Now maybe in some cases it could be but..

 

[Cometstorm]

Now that I think about it, I flew at my relative’s place twice last year.

It too, had a cell tower adjacent to his property.

I didn’t have any problems.

Then again, do such towers ever “pulse” (for lack of a better term), and thus have varied output strength?

 

[sar104]

There are two types of cell tower transmissions - cellular frequencies to phones (obviously) and possibly wireless backhaul over microwave links (if the tower is not wired). The cellular frequencies are limited to 500 W/channel in the US, but usually operate at less than 100 W. Those frequencies are quite different from the 2.4 and 5.8 GHz spectrum that the DJI aircraft use, and it should not be a problem.

I also asked that question at a DJI Enterprise event flying a Matrice, Inspire and Mavic in a demonstration of using the Matrice for cellular tower close-up inspection work. The answer was that there is no problem, and the aircraft flew around the antennas within 20 ft or so with no issues.

Those observations only apply to cellular towers - I would not want to fly around multi-kW transmission towers or radar installations without first knowing exactly what they were transmitting.

 

[PhantomHero]

Thanks for the info! There’s a spot where I ride my SXS and has an incredible view. I was worried about the big V..... tower causing interference.

 

[Bad Andy]

There are two types of cell tower transmissions - cellular frequencies to phones (obviously) and possibly wireless backhaul over microwave links (if the tower is not wired). The cellular frequencies are limited to 500 W/channel in the US, but usually operate at less than 100 W. Those frequencies are quite different from the 2.4 and 5.8 GHz spectrum that the DJI aircraft use, and it should not be a problem.

I also asked that question at a DJI Enterprise event flying a Matrice, Inspire and Mavic in a demonstration of using the Matrice for cellular tower close-up inspection work. The answer was that there is no problem, and the aircraft flew around the antennas within 20 ft or so with no issues.

Those observations only apply to cellular towers - I would not want to fly around multi-kW transmission towers or radar installations without first knowing exactly what they were transmitting.

I tend to be a little paranoid about intermod and front-end overload issues.

In the case of a wireless site, what's the frequency of the backhaul?

20' for an antenna inspection isn't close enough to see much of use with hobby drones and their 90+ degree FOV. Just sayin'...

 

[sar104]

I tend to be a little paranoid about intermod and front-end overload issues.

In the case of a wireless site, what's the frequency of the backhaul?

20' for an antenna inspection isn't close enough to see much of use with hobby drones and their 90+ degree FOV. Just sayin'...

Agreed - I tend to avoid getting too close.

Microwave backhaul is mostly in the 5.8 GHz band I think, so potentially interfering with RC control. Directional and low(ish) power though. The tower we were looking at does appear to have a microwave link.

I doubt anyone wants to look at cell towers with 90° FOV cameras. We were using the Z30. You can see the M210 up by the cell antennas and the Mavic watching from above.