Cell Tower

Typhoon Charlie · Oct 17, 2016

Flew 1/2 mile and circled this tower using POI then flew back. Not a single glitch from the cell signal.

Dragonflyerthom · Oct 18, 2016

Charlie you're right there are no leaks in that cell tower. The problem is sometimes these things are struck by lightning or just age and they start radiating signal and that's when we have problems with our UAVs.

abinder · Oct 18, 2016

Dragonflyerthom said:
Charlie you're right there are no leaks in that cell tower. The problem is sometimes these things are struck by lightning or just age and they start radiating signal and that's when we have problems with our UAVs.

Also, cell signals radiate out, away from the towers; not up.

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PatR · Oct 18, 2016

I've flown several times within 6' of cell tower antennas but I never, ever, relax because I'm certain there will be a time some level of interference will occur. Tower transmitters have radiating POWER, our aircraft do not.

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Typhoon Charlie · Oct 18, 2016

That is correct Pat, cell antennas have an ERP of about 100 watts. The radiation pattern is from 45dg upward to 45dg downward with the main lobe straight out. Although our 2.4ghz Tx/Rx are using spread spectrum technology there is always a chance of front end overload in the receiver on the H. This was a very isolated tower 325ft above take off point and some 2600ft away, so I was pleased that I didn't experience any interference.

Rayray · Oct 18, 2016

Typhoon Charlie said:
Although our 2.4ghz Tx/Rx are using spread spectrum technology there is always a chance of front end overload in the receiver on the H.

Being in Ham Radio, I agree about this. Cell towers on 1900 Mhz are not all that far away from 2.4 Ghz, but I have not read anything so far about actual problems. I think I'll avoid microwave towers, though.

PatR · Oct 18, 2016

Birds don't do well with some of the things that radiate from our Naval vessels. Unfortunately microwaved seagull doesn't taste any better than seared, fried or baked. Terrible across the board.

Rayray · Oct 18, 2016

PatR said:
Birds don't do well with some of the things that radiate from our Naval vessels. Unfortunately microwaved seagull doesn't taste any better than seared, fried or baked. Terrible across the board.

That's one delicacy I have not tried. Probably the taste is not better than Crow. I have had resident crows take a close look, fly by, my Drone named Wendy, but they veered away. Chicken crows, I reckon.

A big reservoir, Rayburn Lake, is not far away. There are Bald Eagle nests there and I plan to make a video of them without disturbing.

PatR · Oct 18, 2016

Careful with eagles, they never run and are aggressive. We've had them hammer RC planes out this way.

K2BLS · Oct 22, 2016

Rayray said:
That's one delicacy I have not tried. Probably the taste is not better than Crow. I have had resident crows take a close look, fly by, my Drone named Wendy, but they veered away. Chicken crows, I reckon.

A big reservoir, Rayburn Lake, is not far away. There are Bald Eagle nests there and I plan to make a video of them without disturbing.

Watch out for eagles. I had one make several passes at one of my fixed-wing planes. It took me a couple minutes of hard maneuvering before it gave up.