Illegal 4-Foot Drone Shut Down Aerial Firefight Over Lake Fire: Forest Service

ktla ^ | June 25, 2015 | Melissa Pamer and Eric Spillman,

[Prince of Space]

This is affecting my pregnant niece and her husband. She posted about it on FB last night.

[steve86]

Seemed he had turned on his remote on the same frequency as one in the air.

That stuff went out what, 15 years ago? Now using a few different technologies to prevent interference.

But manufacturers of spread spectrum (SS) radio systems are claiming that you need never worry about being shot down by other fliers and that all 2.4GHz systems can get along in harmony, despite apparently using the same frequencies.

...

The first and most common type is what we call Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS). This involves the transmitter and receiver staying within a fixed part of the 2.4GHz spectrum.

The second type is called Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum (FHSS) and involves having the transmitter and receiver constantly changing their operating frequency within the allowed limits of the 2.4GHz band.

[steve86]

I would think they could jam the signal rather easily

Not so easy (not a single set of frequencies) because of spread spectrum and illegal, also.

[steve86]

I've had 100" wingspan R/C sailplanes and those weren't even close to the largest class.

It is possible, what you say, that the drone was operated by another government agency.

[21twelve]

“That stuff went out what, 15 years ago?”

LOL. Well - my son is 20 years old now, and he was just a little fella when we would go down to watch the planes!

So what your saying is they need to go with the sniper idea to stop these drones!?

[steve86]

I still have a couple of older single-frequency transmitters but go out in the desert to use them. This way I avoid all types of interference and don't bother anyone else. Several of the frequencies were commandeered by the FCC for use in pagers and other type of RF communication.

The "drone", if it was hobbyist operated (I think it was government), was probably a First Person View (FPV) system. The model aircraft carries a video camera and the operator receives real time video visible on a screen or video goggles.

Somewhat home-brewed setup:

Reminds me of the tinfoil hat guy.

[American in Israel]

Wow, that is incredibly large! What altitude could you achieve? It seems improbable to fly a four foot drone by sight at 11 thousand foot, but at 100 foot that would be a lot easier to see.

[steve86]

Hi! Because of the visual feed out of the cockpit, they can be controlled at any altitude similar to a military RPV.

My gliders were flown in local small thermals only, just line-of-sight and a couple hundred feet.

From the net, one of the large wingspan slope soaring gliders: