How far from a cell tower?

[SCK]

I understand that cell towers and drone communications don't mix. I live about 150 yards from a cell tower so should I just assume that my yard is not a great place to practice with a M2Z drone. I have about 3ac of cleared area next to my house.

How far do you need to be from a tower so that it is not a "problem" ?

 

[gnirtS]

Depends.....

Cell towers use various different frequency bands at various level of power and the antennas spot beam usually to specific directions.

So impossible to tell.

Id be more wary of any potential microwave links between it and other masts.

 

[dirkclod]

Don't do as I do as I test these type things first off and it does depends as gnirts said but here
I have no issues .

 

[ac0j]

Cell towers are pretty clean by themselves, the frequency does not interfere with the Mavic nor do any of the immediate harmonics. What MIGHT be an issue is if there is any secondary service on the same tower. As dirkclod said, Microwave raydomes or drums mounted on the tower, or any other vertical antennas side mounted on the tower well below the top antennas. There could be anything "renting" tower space on the cell tower that could cause you problems.

 

[gnirtS]

There's one cell and other antenna mast near my house in Asia where if i fly the mavic 1 within about 400ft it instantly causes the gimbal to reset in flight. No GPS or signal issues but a gimbal reset 100% of the time.

 

[ac0j]

There's one cell and other antenna mast near my house in Asia where if i fly the mavic 1 within about 400ft it instantly causes the gimbal to reset in flight. No GPS or signal issues but a gimbal reset 100% of the time.

I guess it is best to just stay away from towers unless you are a daredevil like dirkclod
But in MOST cases barring high power directional antennas, or bad or damaged antennas or feed lines you should be OK. The FCC takes spurious emissions pretty seriously in the USA. I have even had some ham radio friends call the FCC over city electric poles that were arcing and causing radio interference and the FCC got right on the city about it.

 

[gnirtS]

Maybe in the USA....Venture outside and the RF spectrum isnt so clean.

 

[SCK]

Cell towers are pretty clean by themselves, the frequency does not interfere with the Mavic nor do any of the immediate harmonics. What MIGHT be an issue is if there is any secondary service on the same tower. As dirkclod said, Microwave raydomes or drums mounted on the tower, or any other vertical antennas side mounted on the tower well below the top antennas. There could be anything "renting" tower space on the cell tower that could cause you problems.

this is a large tower that is covered with Microwave raydomes/drums mounted on the tower and other vertical antennas side mounted on the tower..... does not sound great for a newbie....

 

[ac0j]

this is a large tower that is covered with Microwave raydomes/drums mounted on the tower and other vertical antennas side mounted on the tower..... does not sound great for a newbie....

I would avoid it IMO. Those are highly focused microwaves most of the time.. Back in my younger years climbing towers, there was a few times climbing past those things on the tower, you could actually feel it start heating you up inside till you pass it by. High power AM and FM radio towers, have to have the power reduced significantly before a human can approach the antenna safely for the same reason. In a lot of places the AM tower IS the antenna. You can tell if it is sitting on insulators where it sits on the ground.