4 ms·

It should be more specific, it spots RC drones operated on ~5.8ghz, it won’t spot RC on 900mhz, nor cellular enabled ones.

by tamimio 3mo ago

_davide_ 3mo ago
for lack of directonality?
- relaxing 3mo ago
  for lack of frequency tuning
adolph 3mo ago
Is that a limitation of the antenna? I though QuadRF uses SDR so can see many frequencies, not just the wifi things like ESPARGOS [0] From documentation, QuadRF: Operating frequency range of 4.9 - 6.0 GHz (C-Band). 0. https://espargos.net/ https://espargos.net/
- tamimio 3mo ago
  Not the antenna, unfortunately, it only operates on the range of 4.9-6ghz. It would be great to have a wider range like other SDRs but of course the cost will increase exponentially. https://www.crowdsupply.com/scale-rf/quadrf https://www.crowdsupply.com/scale-rf/quadrf
brk 3mo ago
It also appears to have a fairly narrow detection angle. This might work for spotting a drone when you already know roughly where it is, but that problem becomes infinitely harder when you have to scan the entire sky. RF drone detection has been a challenging problem for quite a while. Lots of solid state radar/RF detection products have emerged in the space, but it is not a trivial problem. And that is for drones with active RF comms, anything flying autonomously is even harder to detect at a far enough range to actually do something about.
- tamimio 3mo ago
  > RF drone detection has been a challenging problem for quite a while. Correct, there is no bullet proof cuas system to this date. > anything flying autonomously is even harder to detect Not just autonomously, because even in autonomous mode you would still need other RF like gnss, but you can fly drones without any rf signature at all and utilize a pre captured images saved on board to navigate the drone accurately using its cameras (normal or thermal). In this case, rf interference won’t work, it won’t be detected based on rf signature either, you will have to rely solely on visuals and acoustic, fly at night, and only left with acoustics.. it is a very hard task from technical standpoint.
  - NetMageSCW 3mo ago
    GNSS is passive and can’t be tracked, the transmitters are all in orbit.
    - tamimio 3mo ago
      Not tracking, jamming. A drone that has no rf dependencies as I mentioned above plus its small footprint is unstoppable, the only current limitations in drones is the endurance.
nullpxl 3mo ago
I'm not super familiar with this area, but couldn't it see harmonics?

It should be more specific, it spots RC drones operated on ~5.8ghz, it won’t spot RC on 900mhz, nor cellular enabled ones.

by tamimio 3mo ago

It should be more specific, it spots RC drones operated on ~5.8ghz, it won’t spot RC on 900mhz, nor cellular enabled ones.

_davide_ 3mo ago

for lack of directonality?

relaxing 3mo ago
for lack of frequency tuning

adolph 3mo ago

Is that a limitation of the antenna? I though QuadRF uses SDR so can see many frequencies, not just the wifi things like ESPARGOS [0] From documentation, QuadRF: Operating frequency range of 4.9 - 6.0 GHz (C-Band). 0. https://espargos.net/ https://espargos.net/

tamimio 3mo ago
Not the antenna, unfortunately, it only operates on the range of 4.9-6ghz. It would be great to have a wider range like other SDRs but of course the cost will increase exponentially. https://www.crowdsupply.com/scale-rf/quadrf https://www.crowdsupply.com/scale-rf/quadrf

brk 3mo ago

It also appears to have a fairly narrow detection angle. This might work for spotting a drone when you already know roughly where it is, but that problem becomes infinitely harder when you have to scan the entire sky. RF drone detection has been a challenging problem for quite a while. Lots of solid state radar/RF detection products have emerged in the space, but it is not a trivial problem. And that is for drones with active RF comms, anything flying autonomously is even harder to detect at a far enough range to actually do something about.

tamimio 3mo ago
> RF drone detection has been a challenging problem for quite a while. Correct, there is no bullet proof cuas system to this date. > anything flying autonomously is even harder to detect Not just autonomously, because even in autonomous mode you would still need other RF like gnss, but you can fly drones without any rf signature at all and utilize a pre captured images saved on board to navigate the drone accurately using its cameras (normal or thermal). In this case, rf interference won’t work, it won’t be detected based on rf signature either, you will have to rely solely on visuals and acoustic, fly at night, and only left with acoustics.. it is a very hard task from technical standpoint.
- NetMageSCW 3mo ago
  GNSS is passive and can’t be tracked, the transmitters are all in orbit.
  - tamimio 3mo ago
    Not tracking, jamming. A drone that has no rf dependencies as I mentioned above plus its small footprint is unstoppable, the only current limitations in drones is the endurance.

nullpxl 3mo ago

I'm not super familiar with this area, but couldn't it see harmonics?