[TowerTalk] Drones

[Mike Fatchett W0MU]

Thanks all for the comments.

Being able to carry a line would be a nice feature.  The price is not 
too bad for a used one.  My son in law has something he said I could 
borrow.  It is not a DJI.

W0MU

On 5/21/2024 1:26 PM, David Gilbert wrote:
>
>
> I use a DJI Mavic Air 2 (the older version of the Air2S), which can be 
> had for less than $450 used.  There are several on eBay right now that 
> even include extra batteries.  It works great, is stable in the wind, 
> and has a good 4K camera.
>
> It also has a decent ability to carry a weight ... at least a pound.  
> I've used it with a 3rd party release mechanism to lift and drop a 
> length of dacron line on the other side of of an existing wire 
> dipole.  The drone has an LED on the underside for lighting up the 
> ground when landing in the dark, and that LED can be triggered on and 
> off via a button on the controller.  The 3rd party release mechanism 
> straps around the body of the drone and positions a phototransistor 
> over that LED.  A small motor powered by a rechargeable battery in the 
> 3rd party release mechanism pulls a pin to drop the load when the LED 
> gets turned on.
>
> Here is the video of it. https://youtu.be/x97s4bHdYtc
>
> I've also used the drone with a small crystal oscillator (strapped to 
> the top) and a very short dipole (strapped to the legs) to plot the 
> vertical pattern of one of my antennas.  The Mavic Air 2 controller 
> constantly displays both height and distance relative to the takeoff 
> point, so it is possible to keep the drone a constant vector distance 
> from the antenna at various elevation angles.  The signal transmitted 
> by the crystal oscillator gets read and measured in the shack from the 
> antenna being tested.  It works.
>
> I've used the drone to inspect my antennas on the tower but didn't 
> save any of those videos.  For "playing around", check out these two 
> videos I posted to YouTube.  They are in 4K, but YouTube sometimes 
> makes you adjust the resolution in the Settings tab at the bottom 
> right hand corner.
>
> https://youtu.be/UZlVPDSbyfw
>
> https://youtu.be/IuoHOWCXhMw
>
> Dave   AB7E
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On 5/21/2024 7:42 AM, Mike Fatchett W0MU wrote:
>> What are people using for their drones? The DJI has a mini drone for 
>> around $300.00  the Maviks are crazy expensive now.  So many choice 
>> but I know many of them are not very good.
>>
>> I am mostly looking for something to do tower inspections and have 
>> some fun flying it about.
>>
>> W0MU
>>
>>
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