Anyone flown a Mini 2 (or any DJI for that matter) in proximity to high RF environments?

[W6DOQ]

Looking to shoot some medium range footage of a TV tower, with the tower owner's permission. The tower has an FM station on it with a transmitter output of about 61KW effected radiated power (ERP includes the the gain of the transmitter).

Has anyone done this ?

 

[boblui]

Regular microwave oven is just about 2 kW. 61 kW ? I will be surprised if the radio can still work.

 

[Repaid1]

Looking to shoot some medium range footage of a TV tower, with the tower owner's permission. The tower has an FM station on it with a transmitter output of about 61KW effected radiated power (ERP includes the the gain of the transmitter).

Has anyone done this ?

All you can do is try, not like anything bad will happen...it will either work or not... If you fly up and it jams the R/C signal it will just go into failsafe and go home...provided you have RTH over the tower if needed. Then you can report back here, success or failure...be a good guy and take a hit for the team

In all seriousness, I have flown about 50 towers or in close proximity...I know cell towers and other such transmitters, but quite a few of them had arrays I didn't know... Never once had a issue...YMMV and we await your data points

 

[Dave Maine]

Rc interference depends on the broadcast frequencies. If it is far away from the 2.5 or 5 ghz ranges, which are the ranges used by DJI, you should be fine.

 

[boblui]

Rc interference depends on the broadcast frequencies. If it is far away from the 2.5 or 5 ghz ranges, which are the ranges used by DJI, you should be fine.

There is an effect called blocking or desensitization. Google these terms for more info. Strong RF signals outside the operating frequency band of the receiver can saturate the front end amplifier and deafen it.

 

[sar104]

Looking to shoot some medium range footage of a TV tower, with the tower owner's permission. The tower has an FM station on it with a transmitter output of about 61KW effected radiated power (ERP includes the the gain of the transmitter).

Has anyone done this ?

High-power TV transmitters are one of the RF sources that will adversely affect communications with the aircraft, even though they are transmitting at lower frequencies. As mentioned above, they will simply swamp the front end of the radios if you get close. As an illustration, I've flown in the vicinity of several 100 kW transmitters in the antenna farm shown below. At around ¼ mile it works fine, but much closer than that was unworkable.

So it depends what you mean by "medium range".

 

[W6DOQ]

Thanks everyone for the input. "Medium Range" would be between 1/4 to 1/8 mile. But yes, my main concern was RF front end overload of the Mini's receiver used for getting the telemetry data from the controller.

As a data point, the mountaintop I am going to also has TV transmitters, which operated at higher power when TV was analog. When parked up there, I could not use my car alarm clicker to activate/de-activate my alarm due to the high RF.

I post an update after my flight and let everyone know how it went.

 

[NG Wildman]

I agree with Drone Photographer. I have flown several towers. Never had a problem. The only problem I was when flying my Mini2 around a tower with my nephew's Mini. The Mini2 had no issues, however, the MIni did stop responding and when we tried RTH, it came straight down rapidly and hit the ground then skimmed the ground to the take off point.
At your distances, it shouldn't cause a problem. Just set your RTH above the tower and you will probably be fine.

 

[Korrd]

I did. I orbited an FM radio tower at super close range (less than 10 metres). Absolutely no effect on the drone whatsoever. I guess FM radio frequencies are so far away from anything the drone can emit/receive, that it is just not affected. I know the antennae array was active, as several radio stations use it 24/7.

Further research revealed that those array elements are rated for 150kw or so. Not sure how much power they normally radiate though.

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[W6DOQ]

I did. I orbited an FM radio tower at super close range (less than 10 metres).

[...]

Thanks. Looks great. How tall was that tower ?

 

[Korrd]

Including the building it's sitting on, 200m.