UAV's and HAM radio

[kc8qvo]

Hello, I am wondering if any of you out there have used ATV (amateur television) on your UAV's. If so, what components did you use and how did you set it up?

Second question. I am building a giant scale airplane, basically a scaled up version of a Hangar 9 Easy Fly .40 (with a few design changes - fuselage shape for example) to a 110" span. My original plan for the airplane was to use it as a platform for ATV, as well as dropping things (parachutists, water balloons at the lake :D , and maybe as a tow plane for gliders). I have looked into UAV's and found a few control boards online that hook up to a GPS to control your airplane. How hard is it to hook these up? And most importantly... how legal is the use of this type of system?

Steve

[kd7ost]

Hello, I am wondering if any of you out there have used ATV (amateur television) on your UAV's. If so, what components did you use and how did you set it up?

Second question. I am building a giant scale airplane, basically a scaled up version of a Hangar 9 Easy Fly .40 (with a few design changes - fuselage shape for example) to a 110" span. My original plan for the airplane was to use it as a platform for ATV, as well as dropping things (parachutists, water balloons at the lake :D , and maybe as a tow plane for gliders). I have looked into UAV's and found a few control boards online that hook up to a GPS to control your airplane. How hard is it to hook these up? And most importantly... how legal is the use of this type of system?

Steve

Hi Steve,

I used some ATV equipment early on but found it to be bulky and not as user freindly as the 900 Mhz and 2.4 Ghz systems ready to go. They are packaged smaller and adapt easily to our planes. Smaller antenna's etc. Check out Black Widow and Super Circuits.

I do have 6 meter RC gear but thats not a big deal for us unless you are in a busy 72Mhz area. You can go up to 1 watt power out and use a yagi on the transmitter though. You have that over the non hams but I don't even care to do that for my applications.

The systems you see for GPS flying are fairly easy to manage in the setup. Check out the RCAP thread as well as UNAV for parts. You will likely need to employ some form of attitude control as well. Something to manage roll and pitch. There are various choices.
http://scalerobotics.com/store/catalog/
http://www.u-nav.com/

Regulation is being worked on right now in the FAA. Legality is a charged issue. The best thing I can say is it's currently a responsibility issue. Also that the level of responsibility you exercise along with your own posts will likely be read and can be used to influence future regs or legality. The biggest thing is risk mitigation. Both to air traffic and surface impact. The FAA requires pilots to maintain a "See and avoid" concept when flying with visual rating. A UAV driver waiting for his plane to come back from 5 miles off and a mile high isn't able to maintain a see and avoid. That should be a clear statement right there. Stay out of air space unless you can directly control your plane and manage a see and avoid.

A pilot flying via GPS in Chicago (just an example of high population) has more risk to mitigate than a pilot flying in the desert. Flying towards a town that is 10 minutes away via RC plane with 15 minutes of fuel on board is a higher risk than doing it with 5 minutes worth of fuel. It all add's up. Professional building and installing as well as a good maintainance program helps mitigate risk. Being a good pilot and practicing a lot helps out too.

Even though I can send my plane on a 60 mile round trip flight, I wouldn't think of doing that. I fly inside the standard RC range and use a spotter to help mitigate risk. If a plane approaches and is still a long way off, you come back and fly like you're at the local RC field till they are well past. I use the GPS system set to my location, coupled with a PCM radio to cause my plane to return to me in the event of a loss of radio control.

AMA is a non player in any of this.

Dan

[ALtitudeap]

AP for hire can not be done on HAM Bands. N7VGD

[CenTexFlyer]

FCC Ruling : If it is secondary to the commercial operation, then it's allowed. e.g. if you use 2.4 video as secondary device to aid in framing the picture, it's OK.

[workshop]

By the same token, one can install a DVR on board and capture commercial video using a HAM downlink as a legal spotting aid.

Jeff

[kc8qvo]

Thanks for the big response, Dan. That helps a lot. I figured that would be the case.

As for the other guys that replied, my use of the HAM gear would be purely for hobby use. I dont plan on using my airplane for getting aerial photos for $$. I like to experiment with RC airplanes and ham radio, so this would just be a perfect combination of the two.

Steve

[dalbert02]

I tried the ATV that uses the cable TV channels without much success. The 2.4Ghz is much better. Just my $0.02
-dave