Wondering What Is An Acceptable Distance To Fly Near radio/TV Transmission tower? I have a site about half a mile from 3 radio towers and wondering if it will be safe to fly there?
Flying near transmission tower?
- Thread starter Tim Dawes
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Should be okay.
Give it a go then report back, so we know for the future.
Give it a go then report back, so we know for the future.
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Be very careful with microwave links. Friend of mine lost a drone flying to close to the beam. It dropped like a stone.
Follow up: had no problems with interference as suggested by the many responces....thank you all.
Unfortunately I flew it into the salt water....totally MY error (as opposed to the bottom sensors being tricked, I turn them off when over water). Pulled it out rinsed it in fresh water, dried it with compressed air and buried it in rice where I'll leave it for a week. Wish me luck!
Unfortunately I flew it into the salt water....totally MY error (as opposed to the bottom sensors being tricked, I turn them off when over water). Pulled it out rinsed it in fresh water, dried it with compressed air and buried it in rice where I'll leave it for a week. Wish me luck!
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Cell towers will affect if you fly near or if the tower is between you and the aircraft. Usually only temporary and transmission will come back. If you’re too close and it goes to return to home it could crash into tower. I set my return to home to 400’ to try and avoid that. I work for a police department and we have a blanket COA. Our training area is next to a 380’ cell tower. We’ve learned to stay away from it.
We were searching for a homicide suspect a few days ago and part of the search area was near a cell tower. When we had to search the area of woods near the tower it cause issues for both our drones. Scary because one of our drones has a $12k thermal camera on it. It was scary because we lost signal and it returned to home. We watched as it nearly missed the tower.
Thanks for the reply. I flew in the vicinity of the towers and no issues. Unfortunately I then crashed into the water near the end of the flight
The issues sometimes when close to antennas on tower is that the transmit power from antenna and freq can mix with control chanels like in the 5 gig range, cause loss of signal to drone. Most times it will fly tward the tower and crash. Not worth the loss! I fly a p3p for tower inspections myself, and have lost 3 in a year due to rf loss. If it has round dishes on the tower, stay long ways away because most times it will be a 5 to 11 gig signal at a concrated beam width being transmitted and if u get in that path, your done!
Very true... the round dishes toast your UAV. We fly M600s and stay above the beams path of round dishes. We also utilize RTK birds when dealing with inspections of cell towers as well as using either higher res cameras or higher optical zoom for more standoff distance.
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Radio and TV no problem at all just as mentioned the Guy Wires are quite difficult to see. The FAA recommends a 2,000' clear zone. I inspect Cell Towers and get in as close as 2' with 4 providers that are active and have never had a problem. I think it depends on the distance between the Phantom and RC. People run into interference when they put to much distance between them and the Phantom, or any Quad.
I have a wireless internet business I run from my ham shack and use my 110 foot tower for its antennas. On the tower at the 100 foot level are three sector directional antennas oriented about 100 degrees apart. These use 2.4 GHz. Also, I have a link signal on 5 GHz which connects to my source via a dish antenna. Not sure what the gain is but I'd guess around 20 dbi on the dish and maybe 10 - 12 dbi on the sector antennas. That said, I have frequently flown my Phantom 4 up within maybe 3 feet of all the antennas, even my higher powered ham antennas with no indications of problems. I also have a friend in the commercial communication business who uses his P4 for inspection of his several towers and also has no issues with RF. I admit it is scary to do this but I get a little braver with each inspection flight. Hope I don't push it too far.
Thanks for posting this interesting topic.
Jim
WA5TEF
Thanks for posting this interesting topic.
Jim
WA5TEF
Ever seen a large, round antenna on a tower? Try flying in front of that - if active, this will not cause interference - will likely fry your receiver instantly instead.
So depends on a tower, depends on how many people are using the network at the moment, and even on the weather (as base stations can scale output power based on it). Basically depends on your luck.
Radio/TV antennas are lower risk - the signal there doesn't change as dynamically, and usually frequency is lower. But even there, the risk is non-zero - wires in your drone will work as antennas and strong enough signal will cause communication failures inside the drone, plus there is intermodulation - antennas and RF amplifiers are not perfect devices which transmit only on one specific frequency with small bandwidth. Often aged transmitters can interfere on many frequencies, as they no longer keep their specification.
So depends on a tower, depends on how many people are using the network at the moment, and even on the weather (as base stations can scale output power based on it). Basically depends on your luck.
Radio/TV antennas are lower risk - the signal there doesn't change as dynamically, and usually frequency is lower. But even there, the risk is non-zero - wires in your drone will work as antennas and strong enough signal will cause communication failures inside the drone, plus there is intermodulation - antennas and RF amplifiers are not perfect devices which transmit only on one specific frequency with small bandwidth. Often aged transmitters can interfere on many frequencies, as they no longer keep their specification.
You definitely have to stay on top of your game when close in. I give it total concentration without anyone around me that may distract me. I have found that sitting on a stool is a great aid in flying and doing inspections. I tend to get a bit dizzy staring straight up and especially when there are cumulus clouds moving along in the sky. I bought a nice (a bit pricy) three legged folding Photographers Stool from B&H Photo. I alway sit on that when flying and in doing so I am steady as a rock. Works great.
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