Question about RC signal/VLOS.

[Beet]

I have seen in several posts that RC needs VLOS with drone to maintain signal contact. I fly my mini off my back veranda/porch which faces east, I can fly west straight over the top of my house up to 150 meters away without moving RC from facing east, I have never lost signal doing this.

 

[brett8883]

I have seen in several posts that RC needs VLOS with drone to maintain signal contact. I fly my mini off my back veranda/porch which faces east, I can fly west straight over the top of my house up to 150 meters away without moving RC from facing east, I have never lost signal doing this.

I helps a ton to have LOS (visual line of sight isn’t necessary) but as you’ve seen it’s not required per se especially over short distances like 150 meters as you have noted. Probably DJIs single greatest advantage over other manufacturers is their radio encoding software. It is pretty dang amazing.

 

[scro]

Think of the transmitter as being like a lightbulb in the dark. Light is the same electromagnetic radiation as the wifi signal, just at a much shorter wavelength. Both share similar properties in how they spread out. Areas that have a straight VLOS to the light get well illuminated, but other surrounding area gets lit up a bit due to reflected light bouncing off everything. Obviously as soon as you're behind solid objects the light (or signal) gets much weaker, but can easily be enough to still see (or fly) if you're fairly close to the light (or transmitter). Parabolic reflectors work in exactly the same way as the reflector around the back of a floodlight.

 

[boblui]

Try to fly further and you will find that the law of physics is true.