Microwave tower interference

[Mt-Ed]

I was wondering if anyone has had personal experience with flying in association/proximity to microwave towers? Specifically,
1. Did they effect your bird's initial home point registration?
2. Did they effect your GPS?
3. Is there any accepted "safe" distance one should take off/fly from them (not from a collision concern but from a navigational or GPS concern)?
4. If flying by one, might there be a "preferred" distance to keep away when passing?

Thanks for sharing!!

 

[mavic3usa]

I don't have any first hand experience to provide feedback on this so I'll let others chime in before I give my thoughts.

 

[Daytona500]

I don't have any first hand experience to provide feedback on this so I'll let others chime in before I give my thoughts.

if you don't have any if on this subject why would you chime in? other then to get more numbers in your messages which is a waste of space on the forum.
I have flown near towers before and have had no problems

 

[mavic3usa]

if you don't have any if on this subject why would you chime in? other then to get more numbers in your messages which is a waste of space on the forum.
I have flown near towers before and have had no problems

Not sure what "numbers in your messages" mean.

I had a message typed out and then I went back and edited it to NVM realizing that if I didn't have any first hand info, I should probably wait until someone else chimes in so I simply changed it. I've said it often if I don't know something that I'm talking about, I probably won't comment extensively and this was one of those times. Whether I edit my comment or delete my comment, I'll decide that. But with some posts (of mine) running a dozen pages and replies in the hundreds with me being close to half of them, one extra post in a thread asking for help doesn't mean much to whatever you are alluding to. If anything, it will be "laughed" at by my stalker.

I'll post back here at the end and yes, it might be slightly OT depending on the replies.

 

[Phantomrain.org]

I was wondering if anyone has had personal experience with flying in association/proximity to microwave towers? Specifically,
1. Did they effect your bird's initial home point registration?
2. Did they effect your GPS?
3. Is there any accepted "safe" distance one should take off/fly from them (not from a collision concern but from a navigational or GPS concern)?
4. If flying by one, might there be a "preferred" distance to keep away when passing?

Thanks for sharing!!

You should have no issues, with the Micowave towers, it used to be when flying the Phantom 4 Series drones these type of towers would present an issue but the newer drones simply have not had issues.

So far none of the Towers I have flown to have caused any issues, as I think others will attend to.

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Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly your drone in the Rain. Land on the Water and Fly into Towers..

 

[Myetkt]

Not sure what "numbers in your messages" mean.

I had a message typed out and then I went back and edited it to NVM realizing that if I didn't have any first hand info, I should probably wait until someone else chimes in so I simply changed it. I've said it often if I don't know something that I'm talking about, I probably won't comment extensively and this was one of those times. Whether I edit my comment or delete my comment, I'll decide that. But with some posts (of mine) running a dozen pages and replies in the hundreds with me being close to half of them, one extra post in a thread asking for help doesn't mean much to whatever you are alluding to. If anything, it will be "laughed" at by my stalker.

I'll post back here at the end and yes, it might be slightly OT depending on the replies.

You’re welcome!

 

[ExUmbra.Solutions]

You’ll have no issues at all. My team is on track to complete just shy of 3000 telecom towers this year and have closed out 23 radio tower RF analysis missions for the year. One of the missions I offer is specifically designed to evaluate an existing MW path which involves parking directly aligned to the wave and we have no issues at all.

A couple of caveats to all this thought…

They will not cause GPS interference because they are a relatively narrow and focused path that you only briefly pass through. Even when parked aligned to the beam though we have no issues and the positional stability is as solid as ever.

Some MW transmit in bands close to the unlicensed spectrum that almost all commercial drones utilize. However I have never had a GPS or control issue around the many many hundreds of towers I have personally inspected.

The one place where MW MAY become an issue has been with the use of RTK. Because of the nature of RTK and the base station’s communication and GPS refinement frequencies we do occasionally have towers where RTK is viable for that modeling mission.

As far as safety, much like a plane, as far as possible is what all the tower co’s and telecoms will tell you. There is no legal consensus or outright regulation. There is an industry wide unofficial agreement that if the drone crosses the edge of the compound fence it is now in the tower co/telecom company space (spare everyone the lectures on airspace and blades of grass on up). This simply implies that we would need to coordinate with the company for the mission as opposed to any overview photos or ground photos that would be taken from outside the compound.

 

[Meta4]

So far none of the Towers I have flown to have caused any issues, as I think others will attend to.

The tower you show has no microwave antennas which is what the OP specifically asked about.
It's a simple mobile phone tower

 

[Meta4]

I was wondering if anyone has had personal experience with flying in association/proximity to microwave towers? Specifically,
1. Did they effect your bird's initial home point registration?
2. Did they effect your GPS?
3. Is there any accepted "safe" distance one should take off/fly from them (not from a collision concern but from a navigational or GPS concern)?
4. If flying by one, might there be a "preferred" distance to keep away when passing?

Microwave antennas are strongly directional.
They won't have any effect unless you were in the path between a pair of microwave antennas. ie directly in front of the antenna.
Post #7 has given you a good explanation of what impacts you could expect if you flew your drone into that path.

 

[DARKSeifer]

1. Did they effect your bird's initial home point registration?

Nope, coordinates are saved on the internal memory of the drone upon takeoff, and can only be manually changed to another location. Today's electronics are really strong against RF radiation, not even a 800W magnetron at close range would change a bit from the memory of a drone. You would need an RF injector literally touching the PCB to impact a modern chip.

2. Did they effect your GPS?

They could if they are powerful enough and are emitting on frequencies around 1.2Ghz, but I've never experienced it. On the other hand, towers are usually made from ferromagnetic metal that could interfere with the compass if you get too close.

3. Is there any accepted "safe" distance one should take off/fly from them (not from a collision concern but from a navigational or GPS concern)?

10 meters would be enough for the general antenna. RF power dissipates at a rate of the inverse square of the distance, so it goes down pretty quickly. The same for electric and magnetic fields of the tower. But of course, every pilot knows the location of some "death antennas" that kill the signal whenever you get around 50 meters of them, just stay away from those.

4. If flying by one, might there be a "preferred" distance to keep away when passing?

If you are long ranging, it's inevitable to pass near some antennas, and they'll interfere with the connection to some degree. You want to keep them as far as possible, 25-50m for optimal signal performance.

If you have connection problems, the easiest solutions are just to reduce the distance between you and the drone, keep the controller antennas pointed towards the drone, increase altitude or use the FCC mode if you are in a CE country.

Always search for a clear, unobstructed line of sight between you and the drone, and the connection will be perfect at any range, no matter what.

 

[Meta4]

But of course, every pilot knows the location of some "death antennas" that kill the signal whenever you get around 50 meters of them, just stay away from those.

Every pilot ??
I wonder if anyone in this forum has ever heard of such a thing.

 

[MA2 317]

They will not cause GPS interference because they are a relatively narrow and focused path that you only briefly pass through. Even when parked aligned to the beam though we have no issues and the positional stability is as solid as ever.

Thank you for posting.

This may explain the problems I experienced when flying my SPARK years ago in an empty field.

I could fly under and over a mysterious patch of airspace with no problems.

If I flew into the area that was suspect, the drone would have a hiccup and RTH was initiated.

I couldn't see any towers around me but suspected a microwave transmission beam between towers may have been the reason for the hiccup.

.

 

[Starz]

if anyone in this forum has ever heard of such a thing

Nope.

 

[kentdavidge]

I have flown a few times close to a 4G tower here where I live, going from one to another of our farms. No issue to report.

 

[Mt-Ed]

The tower you show has no microwave antennas which is what the OP specifically asked about.
It's a simple mobile phone tower

In all honesty, I must express my own ignorance in this matter. The image you referred to looks exactly what the one I am concerned about where I live and fly. So I guess I disturbed the bee hive by my ignorance and I'm sorry. I really appreciate everyone's input, and found out more information than I had expected!! Thanks everyone!!!

 

[MS Coast]

In all honesty, I must express my own ignorance in this matter. The image you referred to looks exactly what the one I am concerned about where I live and fly. So I guess I disturbed the bee hive by my ignorance and I'm sorry. I really appreciate everyone's input, and found out more information than I had expected!! Thanks everyone!!!

No hornets. No apologies needed. Don't hesitate to post more questions.

For what it's worth, most microwave towers have antennas that look like snare drums on their sides. They're a different critter from cell towers, with highly directional output.

 

[djwak59]

I was wondering if anyone has had personal experience with flying in association/proximity to microwave towers? Specifically,
1. Did they effect your bird's initial home point registration?
2. Did they effect your GPS?
3. Is there any accepted "safe" distance one should take off/fly from them (not from a collision concern but from a navigational or GPS concern)?
4. If flying by one, might there be a "preferred" distance to keep away when passing?

Thanks for sharing!!

IDK about others, but I was always told to just stay way from them, and so I always have.

 

[Nick 207]

I live close to a cell tower and get complete loss of signal with 04 transmission with both mini 4p and Air 3s ,so for me I have to stay out of that area or get the forced RTH.