I think we had a discussion about this sort of thing here on the
reflector a few months ago. I'm convinced that it would be completely
feasible to have an onboard wideband SDR and small transmitter feeding
I/Q data to the ground for recording and subsequent analysis. You could
possibly just feed wideband noise into the antenna (not sure about the
legal issues of that) with a Tee at the antenna to monitor the input
with a similar wideband SDR. Decode both recordings later, compare them
at every frequency and every position of the drone, and plot the result.
There are GPS programmable versions of these things (like the
Octocopter) that can carry a five pound payload. It seems to me that a
capital investment of less than $10K would pretty much make antenna test
fields virtually obsolete. The tests could be done at the actual final
site to account for nearby structures and terrain.
It might even make a decent side business for someone ....
73,
Dave AB7E
On 4/14/2013 1:18 PM, K1TTT wrote:
So far I have avoided trees, lots of clear space around my towers by design.
And yes, the wifi range is a big limiting factor. The only controller I
have is an ipod touch which gets me about 200' or so. I wonder if there
are android devices that have external wifi capability? It does have a usb
plug, with a bit of software and an sdr plugged into it you could probably
add a field strength reading to the telemetry or have it recorded on board.
They do have a gps plugin for it so it could probably be programmed to fly
circles around a tower at some specified height and record coordinates along
with field strength.
David Robbins K1TTT
e-mail: mailto:k1ttt@arrl.net
web: http://wiki.k1ttt.net
AR-Cluster node: 145.69MHz or telnet://k1ttt.net
-----Original Message-----
From: Jim Lux [mailto:jimlux@earthlink.net]
Sent: Sunday, April 14, 2013 19:44
To: towertalk@contesting.com
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] the future of antenna and tower inspection
On 4/14/13 12:12 PM, K1TTT wrote:
Well, except for the part where I chase the dog around the yard that is.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIfhRzGo8uI
As long as it's not too windy, these work well.. The other issue I've had
is that the WiFi range isn't as good as I would like, but I think that's
more of an interference issue (with the zillions of home access points
around me). I haven't figured out yet how to put a directional antenna in
the system (not like my iPad has a antenna connector)
I'd love to figure out a way to put a very low mass field strength receiver
on one and send the output back to the ground. Measure the pattern
in-situ...
(and I'll bet you've had the experience of hitting a tree branch or leaves)
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