Interference between radio controller and drone

[Victorhugo]

Morning, all!
I
'm new to flying drones and I've recently got a DJI mini 2. I haven't flown it yet, but I've done some online searches so to learn more about drones, and it has made me come up with some questions regarding to flying drones safely and carefully.

My questions are related to interference caused by phone towers and if their signals (3G,4G,5G) cause different levels of interference depending on the signal type

At the moment i live in a house very close to a phone tower. My house is as close as 10 meters away from the phone tower. Taking into consideration the interference that that phone tower can cause... Would it be so risky to take off the drone from my house? Even if I fly it away from my home to avoid any kind of interference caused by the phone tower close to my house?

The 3G would affect less than 4G,5G...? ( I've got to know that the phone tower near here transmits g signal)

I've seen that this drone has 2.5ghz and 5.8ghz... what's the relation between both signals (drone and phone tower)?


What frequency is more stable to fly in this condition, or over the city?


In this case, the remote controller will be closer to the tower than the drone.


Which scenario would be worse?


- flying with the drone away from my home, but with the remote controller near the tower



Or flying with the drone near a phone tower, but with the remote controller away from a phone tower?



I know that the best situation would be flying with both away from any kind of tower to avoid interference.

But as I've bought the drone to fly from my house, I'm worried if it'd be safe to fly/departure the drone from my house with that tower so close to my house.

Would the interference caused by the tower also interfere on the remote controller as much as it would do on the drone?


Feel free to comment and thanks in advance for your comments!

 

[mavic3usa]

Almost more than likely there will be no interference from the cellphone tower to your drone; it will be like the tower is not even there. Happy flying!

 

[Phantomrain.org]

You should be able to fly directly into the tower and have no issues as I have tested all the drone on a Few Towers.

if you have any issues , they are most likely to occur from where your taking off, such as dont be to inclined to take off from a metal bridge, but you should be fine flying from inside your car.

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly your Mini 2 in the Rain. Land on the Water.

 

[MA2 317]

My favorite cell tower....

Not sure what "G" it is, but I have not experienced any problems while orbiting the tower.

 

[GFields]

Greetings from Birmingham Alabama USA, welcome to the forum! We look forward to hearing from you!

 

[IronSky1]

The only way to reliably tell is use and analizer . I use HackRF with an android app that allows me scan all frequencies . I take off and live about 600 ft from a FCC mast that is the high point between Chicago and Rockford. There are over 100 antenas of all types on the mast very difficult to know what frequencies are in use without analizer.

The reason I do this is I have had 2 flyaways of DJI drones a P2 and a Mavic Mini. Both were total losses. This was 5 and 3 years ago. The newer drones are not as sensitive.

If anyone wants more info on what I use let me know I will have to find the posts somewhere on one of the pilot forums. (HackRF cost around 150 USD software is free)

 

[Vic Moss]

Cell towers won't be an issue.

High tension power transmission lines can be, as can microwave and other high power antenna arrays. But you have to fly fairly close to any of them to cause any issues.

 

[James in the Desert]

Morning, all!
I
'm new to flying drones and I've recently got a DJI mini 2. I haven't flown it yet, but I've done some online searches so to learn more about drones, and it has made me come up with some questions regarding to flying drones safely and carefully.

My questions are related to interference caused by phone towers and if their signals (3G,4G,5G) cause different levels of interference depending on the signal type

At the moment i live in a house very close to a phone tower. My house is as close as 10 meters away from the phone tower. Taking into consideration the interference that that phone tower can cause... Would it be so risky to take off the drone from my house? Even if I fly it away from my home to avoid any kind of interference caused by the phone tower close to my house?

The 3G would affect less than 4G,5G...? ( I've got to know that the phone tower near here transmits g signal)

I've seen that this drone has 2.5ghz and 5.8ghz... what's the relation between both signals (drone and phone tower)?


What frequency is more stable to fly in this condition, or over the city?


In this case, the remote controller will be closer to the tower than the drone.


Which scenario would be worse?


- flying with the drone away from my home, but with the remote controller near the tower



Or flying with the drone near a phone tower, but with the remote controller away from a phone tower?



I know that the best situation would be flying with both away from any kind of tower to avoid interference.

But as I've bought the drone to fly from my house, I'm worried if it'd be safe to fly/departure the drone from my house with that tower so close to my house.

Would the interference caused by the tower also interfere on the remote controller as much as it would do on the drone?


Feel free to comment and thanks in advance for your comments!

I would strongly recommend you watch some videos by Billy Kyle, or flightpath on YouTube. Through my experience, when I started out flying drones in 2016, as long as you have the home Pointset and a good altitude for return to home just go for it. If you lose the signal or you lose transmission, it will come back to you. Good luck

 

[MavicFlyer2]

Hello from Minnesota and welcome to the Forum....There's a lot of good quality teaching/feedback going on in here. Just ask, and the experts are great on providing good sound advice for you to apply and use... Remember to always Fly safely and fly smartly representing all of us drone hobbyist well.

 

[Meta4]

The reason I do this is I have had 2 flyaways of DJI drones a P2 and a Mavic Mini. Both were total losses. This was 5 and 3 years ago. The newer drones are not as sensitive.

Radio interference won't cause a drone to fly away.
At worst it could swamp the control signal which would initiate your loss of signal action.
By default that is RTH and the drone would come home.
If you lost two drones, the causes of those incidents would be something else and could probably be determined from analysis of the flight data.

 

[IronSky1]

Good input however, in both cases I was not keeping flight logs in 2017. I was more interested in expiermenting. The Phantom 2 Zenmuse had a new Gopro on gimbal and analog FPV Mini for piloting. It just took off and I lost control as it headed to FCC mast and started going up in spin. Analog video stopped and as I watched the video drop it had to be way up.

After these losses I started using AIrdata which gives me a good way to playback the flight and watch the logs as flight progressed. I also started using Trackimo as a backup tracking device to buy more time in the case of loss (it normally gives me and additional couple days). I have used it to recover two Mavics one on top of chiminey cap.

I also was able to learn a lot about what is in the airways around the mast with HackRF and stay away from masts. I have not had a problem since early 2019 . I also beleive the control signals are far better with the newer drones. I have to fly around a mast I use my Matrice with 30 times optical zoom.

Thanks for input however, RTH did not engage for me.

This is my normal takeoff spot on rear lawn. The water tower also has a lot of antenae on it. Both are about 600 ft way

 

[Flakey Flier]

Was flying near one a few weeks ago, nothing to report,no issues other than the high winds.

 

[FlushVision]

You get far more interference from nearby wi-fi than from cell towers I find.