Not enough sats for a good flight

[Comtech]

I spent the weekend at my in-laws cabin on Hood Canal and was excited to get some good footage of the shrimping that was going on. I calibrated the H compass and waited around 30 minutes to acquire at least 16 sats, but it never did. I was on the Rocky beach with a tree line behind me and all open to the sides and front. The most sats I acquired was 12 and it would change to 11 frequently and give me a warning. The St-16 acquired 9 to 11, but I wasn't confident about taking off. I eventuality turned GPS off and flew nervously in full manual, but I didn't really get the footage I wanted. During flight I saw the H pick up 15 sats, but I didn't know what would happen if I turned GPS on during flight.
Question, would it be unadvisable to do so? Could it cause a fly away? If it is ok, should GPS be turned off when landing? Is there something wrong with my GPS?

 

[PatR]

Did you notice many vessels running sweep radar antennas? GPS has relatively weak signal strength and many things can interfere with it.

As for you last question, when in doubt if everything else is working, don't make changes that might affect flight control while airborne. I don't have a decisive answer but don't take risks that aren't absolutely necessary.

 

[Comtech]

With all the waiting, the boats had cleared the area. Their radar shouldn't have caused what I was experiencing.

 

[jaykay2]

Try looking up the location you were at on here
Location Lookup
you can roll it back to yesterday, pretty poor numbers there
hope this helps

 

[mcbutler]

Does the H use GPS and GLONASS?

 

[Comtech]

Try looking up the location you were at on here
Location Lookup
you can roll it back to yesterday, pretty poor numbers there
hope this helps

Thanks, didn't know of such a site.
Another reply asked if our H received the Russian version of GPS Glonast? Are any UAV systems capable of using both systems simultaneously?

 

[Photo]

Does the H use GPS and GLONASS?

The H use both GPS systems at the same time! Splendid!

 

[FlushVision]

Does the H use GPS and GLONASS?

Yes.

 

[PatR]

FYI, the right marine radar can knock a drone out of the sky from miles away if they are using elevated power levels.

 

[FlushVision]

Try looking up the location you were at on here
Location Lookup
you can roll it back to yesterday, pretty poor numbers there
hope this helps

I used that for a flight I did today. It suggested that I should expect around 16 satellites with a 10% mask for the place I was at. As it turned out, though, I got 19 satellites as it predicted at a 5% mask. Good site.

 

[Jester]

FYI, the right marine radar can knock a drone out of the sky from miles away if they are using elevated power levels.

Not that I'll run into too many marine radars on my pond in east Texas, even with my wide array of massive and hi tec sea going vessels, ranging from paddle boards and kayaks all the way up to a paddle boat and a mighty 24' pontoon boat but you've made me curious now.
When you say it'll knock a drone out of the sky, do you mean they could take out the gps, causing problems/crash, or could they actually interfere with all functions on a drone and truly bring it down?
I don't know if you know the answer to this one or not, but I'm also curious about my wifi tower now. We recently had a wifi tower installed at the back of my property, but a month later a tornado took it down. I never flew between it and the signal coming into it from the next town over, which faces away from my property so i have always been on the back side of the dish on it, but now I have had a new one installed right up close to my house, which means much of my flying could now put the H in between my tower the the incoming signal to it. Do you happen to know if it brings in enough signal to mess with the H, or how far I need to stay away from the dish side of it if it can mess with it?
Thanks,
Mark

 

[PatR]

By "bring it down" I mean down, in the water, gone, lost forever. The right radar frequencies and power levels are death to all drones.

WiFi/cell towers can be problems for our systems. Not always, but they can. Realistically, WiFi is not a really good way to be operating a flying machine, but it does work, is relatively inexpensive, and limits range.

 

[Jester]

By "bring it down" I mean down, in the water, gone, lost forever. The right radar frequencies and power levels are death to all drones.

WiFi/cell towers can be problems for our systems. Not always, but they can. Realistically, WiFi is not a really good way to be operating a flying machine, but it does work, is relatively inexpensive, and limits range.

So the ships don't just mess up the gps, they can totally take out the drone? Wow. Good to know.
I guess I'll stay away from my wifi tower as well then. Thanks.