Take down drones with a ham radio?
- Thread starter Cometstorm
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First off, no ham operator would ever refer to an amplifier as a "kicker"! That's a CB'r terminology. That alone tells me he does not know what he is talking about. No ham transmitter on assigned frequencies would interfere with a drone on 2.4 GHz or 5.8 GHz. I have been an amateur radio operator since 1962 and am well familiar with this topic. Also I have an internet business where I supply wifi to my neighbors on 2.4 GHz. I use three Sector antennas on my 120 foot tower. I have flown my Phantom 4 right up IN FRONT of each of these directional antennas on 2.4 GHz with NO INTERFERENCE! If any RF signal was going to cause a problem for a drone it would be this setup, not " a ham radio with a 1,000 watt 'kicker' ". The one making that statement does not know what he is writing about.
Jim
WA5TEF
Jim
WA5TEF
Ham radios transmitting high watts and microwave paths can and will degrade and can swamp a drone reciever if things are just right. I use my drone to inspect towers and antenna systems all the time. I have lost 3 drones due to this issue. If u are close to any antenna at any freq and the gain of the antenna is high enough, ur drone can go nuts. Biggest issue is microwave paths consentrate a 1 watt signal in a very small path that may be miles away from where ur drone is and all if a sudden its gone. Most times it will recover and all good but can happen. Most are at 6 gig or 11 gig but so many are around the 4.8 and 5 gig now . Fm is strange and can not ever say that hams or any other freqs wont and cant bring one down is not true.
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Like others had said , you can jam the signal and the bird will act just like when you go out of range and return home...
There are high end multimillion $ military equipment to do this because it's not possible just by doing noise so the poor bird can't hear you any more. He knows what to do in case of communication lost. You need a system that will intercept the communication link and learn the authentications , frequencys and comands so you can take control of the birds and take it home ...Ask Russian military they have take control of many American drones going into their air space so had others.
I don't doubt that in the near future with more and more drones all over the place some companies will spend the $ to make some kind of drone hunter for the civilian market but I can only imagine price tags for something like this and the legal questions.
There are high end multimillion $ military equipment to do this because it's not possible just by doing noise so the poor bird can't hear you any more. He knows what to do in case of communication lost. You need a system that will intercept the communication link and learn the authentications , frequencys and comands so you can take control of the birds and take it home ...Ask Russian military they have take control of many American drones going into their air space so had others.
I don't doubt that in the near future with more and more drones all over the place some companies will spend the $ to make some kind of drone hunter for the civilian market but I can only imagine price tags for something like this and the legal questions.
Unless a ham radio operator is transmitting on you exact frequency or a harmonic of that frequency with very high power, I don't believe you could jam a drones signal. And to date, stock ham radios don't typically transmit on frequencies that drones use
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de K0UNX. I've been a ham for OVER 60 YEARS. I'd be hard pressed to find a way of interfering with a drone's communication. We hams can use MOST of the 2.4 Gig band, and we can use quite a bit of power (ERP), still, the digital nature of the DJI communications and it's ability to frequency hop would make it VERY hard to interfere with. I have a P4, Mavic, and a Spark. I have no fear of interference.
I agree with the other hams who have responded. Anyway, most current amateur radio equipment is so well designed and built it would be next to impossible to generate a harmonic that high in frequency. The highest most of us use is in the 54 MHz band. Now compare 0.054 GHz to 2.4 GHz. Not even close!
73
Jim
WA5TEF
73
Jim
WA5TEF
RTH I believe, falling out of the sky I doubt it . My only times that I believe that interference caused an RTH with my P4 was when I flew between 2 cell towers about 5 miles apart. I was about 200 yards from a tower at antenna height and got a RTH, at the time I though I may have pointed my RC away, the next week driving home I could see both towers and realized that I probably was between them, so I got home took my bird out and tried that again and once more RTH. Flying close no problem but between in my case RTH. I don't know if there is other transmitters on that tower but twice is enough for me not go there again.
When I was a young apprentice, in the olden days, I built a tesla coil, output estimated at around a half million volts, but covered so much of the rf spectrum back then, wiped out radio reception for blocks! Had it set up in a Sydney multi story office block, for an apprenticeship week display. Building had radio transmitters on the top story, caused major problems, so I had to shut it down.
But I don't think it would bring say a Phantom down, might make it go home though!
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Look at the price on those things geez! And us drone pilots think that DJI is screwing us[emoji23][emoji23][emoji23]
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