3 ms·
I've seen this as a payload for military UAVs (Hunter); it's a 700kg aircraft, though. I don't think you could put the right electronics on a small quadcopter,
by rdl 13y ago
I've seen this as a payload for military UAVs (Hunter); it's a 700kg aircraft, though.
I don't think you could put the right electronics on a small quadcopter, but the gas powered quadcopters are perfectly capable -- anything which can carry a DSLR.
The nice thing about antennas is they're super directional (if desired), so really all you need is altitude, not necessarily maneuverability -- a tethered balloon or just being on top of a building would work fine. For SIGINT, you probably want longer loiter times than a small UAV will give you; a small UAV with wifi/cell would mainly be for tracking a moving target, or killing a target which happens to be radiating on a specific frequency (i.e. find/kill a certain cellphone).
In general the military cares more about cellular signals than wifi, at least so far.
- hga 13y agoI don't think a tethered balloon would be an ideal platform for such a directional antenna in any vaguely windy location, you need a lot of stability for it to be useful. I'm having difficult imagining any way to make that work which isn't essentially a stayed vertical support with the balloon ... probably not at net helping.
- rdl 13y agoJLENS works with a variety of sensors (optical and RF) today, although I'm more familiar with the smaller systems (just a big tower with a payload on top)
- Sae5waip 13y agoElectrically powered multicopters can carry DSLRs quite easily. If it's supposed to carry expensive equipment, you'll want to use a hexa- or octocopter though. Of course multicopter flight times, especially with payloads, are problematic.