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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