[TowerTalk] the future of antenna and tower inspection

[David Gilbert]

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 at arrl.net
> web: http://wiki.k1ttt.net
> AR-Cluster node: 145.69MHz or telnet://k1ttt.net
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jim Lux [mailto:jimlux at earthlink.net]
> Sent: Sunday, April 14, 2013 19:44
> To: towertalk at 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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