5 ms·
I don't think that's super clear - it seems to have covered somewhat over 20 miles but more importantly passed over a substantial (4k feet prominent) mountain r
by jcrawfordor 5y ago
I don't think that's super clear - it seems to have covered somewhat over 20 miles but more importantly passed over a substantial (4k feet prominent) mountain ridge. That would make reliable control by line of sight radio very suspect and I don't think the operator would have risked it unless they had control by satellite or a high degree of confidence in its autonomous capability. Around the point it passes over the ridge the pilots briefly speculate that it may have encountered some kind of control problem due to its behavior, so perhaps it was being controlled from the ground with an autonomous safety capability... but that still indicates a high level of logistical sophistication since it departed the scene away from where the operator would have been (if we go on the autonomous safety theory it was presumably returning to autonomously land at a site north of Tucson?).
- kortilla 5y agoSounds like something a 4g modem could handle trivially.
- jacurtis 5y ago4g modems connect to 4g towers. 4g towers transmit downward to users in the city below them. They do not transmit upward. That is why if you leave you phone turned on during a commercial flight, it will stop working after take off anyway. The towers don't send signal upward. You might still collect some residual signal for a little bit if you are near a tower and directly above it for a thousand feet or so, but not at 14,000 ft. This couldn't be done with a 3g/4g/5g/LTE modem.
- decadancer 5y agodoes this mean I would be out of range on any construction crane higher than a skyscraper nearby?
- rwbhn 5y agoMaybe the operator was on the ridge?
- Maursault 5y agoOr on one of the helicopters?