Phil Perry Posted February 12, 2015 Share Posted February 12, 2015 Plagiarised ( and condensed from an article in the SUN Newspaper – THURS Feb 12 2015 ) MOBILE DRONE SIGNAL. . . . Britain’s biggest mobile phone provider plans to cover gaps in the network by using flying “Drones”. EE would like to investigate the practicalities of Drone usage satisfy need in rural areas where coverage is at best sparse and in some cases non existent. The “Air Masts” ( who thinks up this bullcrap ? ) as they have been termed ( ! ) could also meet demand surges at major music venues and also sporting events, and also major accident scenes where smaller drone versions could be “UP” in seconds ( ! ! ! ) for emergency services communications. Balloons have also been considered as an alternative to Drones. . . trials of both are expected shortly . Mr Olaf Swantee ( boss of the monster EE corporation which now owns Orange, T-Mobile and is bidding for 3 Mobile, and Vodafone. . ) said “We are looking at Innovation,. . .even stuff that is not currently available. . . .” An “Expert” . . .a Mr. Matt Howett, (of OVUM ANALYSTS) Added that. . . The awkward parts of Britain are always going to need BLUE SKY THINKING . . . ( Sigh. . .I really hope that wasn’t intended as a pun. . . . ) He hopes that Drones will help in providing 4G service to 99 percent of Brits by 2017. . . . . He said that “We are working now on 5G. . . this is said to be SO FAST. . . you could download thirty HD movies in a single second” . . . . ( Download onto what precisely ? ? ? ? ? ) Could the average computer operating system cope with that ? ? ? Come on you Computer geeks,. . . .TELL US > > > What do we need to add on to our Ipads to download 30 HD movies PER Sec. . . .? ? ? I dunno if my old laptop could deal with that. . . . . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
facthunter Posted February 12, 2015 Share Posted February 12, 2015 If it overloads it would turn into a comet. Seriously though If this fails it could down on his head like a ton of bricks. I've heard of businessmen "flying a kite" wouldn't that be cheaper? Nev Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Perry Posted February 12, 2015 Author Share Posted February 12, 2015 If it overloads it would turn into a comet. Seriously though If this fails it could down on his head like a ton of bricks. I've heard of businessmen "flying a kite" wouldn't that be cheaper? Nev Well Nev,. . . .reason for attention to this article was,. . ."WHAT IF" . . . .when there was a large road accident or whatever, and portable comms. drones were deployed willy nilly,. . .would there be sufficient cohesion of information to be able to contact all local private flying sites to be aware that there could be a danger to low flying recreational air movements from aforesaid comms drones ? ? ? ? or would we, as a nonentity, per se,. . .be excluded from the loop. . . . . I don't imagine for a second that these proposed comms drones would be allowed to operate anywhere in the vicinity of a commercial airport, but in the UK we have rather a lot of very small sites where the traffic density is quite considerable even on weelkdays with training and other recreational flying. Some of these media oriented ideas sound really clever until you start inserting the But what if. . . . . Each and every day that I operate the radio station at my local airfield I first download and search through all NOTAMS to ensure there is nothing which may interfere with our operations,. . . occasionally we might have a royal flight,. . .that buggers up everything for a ten mile wide ribbon of airspace wherever the helicopter may be travelling,. . .this isn't normally a problem as we are Informed of it beforehand, but ad hoc launching of commsdrones would be another thing altogether. . . . Oh dear I can feel another question to parliament coming on. . . . .I wonder if it will actually get read this time. . .( ! ) Phil Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
facthunter Posted February 12, 2015 Share Posted February 12, 2015 Wouldn't a tethered balloon do the job? Nev Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SDQDI Posted February 13, 2015 Share Posted February 13, 2015 Wouldn't a tethered balloon do the job? Nev The tether would present a hazard in its own right if it was high enough, they were doing a balloon Internet test in Australia a little while ago (thought there was a vid on here somewhere about it?) I wonder how high they need to be to be useful? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Perry Posted February 13, 2015 Author Share Posted February 13, 2015 The tether would present a hazard in its own right if it was high enough, they were doing a balloon Internet test in Australia a little while ago (thought there was a vid on here somewhere about it?) I wonder how high they need to be to be useful? ...Sufficiently high to enable a strong enough full duplex signal with the nearest networkable cell mast ? . . largely depends on the kind of terrain I suppose. . . . wavelengths used by the mobile phone networks prefer to travel in uninterruppted straight lines, and won't readily cope with interceding high ground . . . high end uhf signals are like that, in the low Gigahertz frequency range, . . . the Earth being spheroidal creates all the darned problems . . . ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Perry Posted February 13, 2015 Author Share Posted February 13, 2015 Wouldn't a tethered balloon do the job? Nev Yes, I guess it would Nev, . . .they reckon that they're going to run some trials with those too. , but as as SDQDI pointed out, the tether cable would be more than likely an even more serious hazard to small aircraft, unless the site was notam'ed well beforehand as "Tethered Balloon Cable Hazard Gnd level to X,000 Feet. . . . . . . For X hours . . . .On Date. . . . ." Etc. . . . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pmccarthy Posted February 13, 2015 Share Posted February 13, 2015 I love the idea of blue sky thinking. It was the group Little Heroes who sang " one perfect day" and asked the question that we all ask " tell me, is it still raining there in England?". Drones don't cope well with the weight of precipitation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marty_d Posted February 13, 2015 Share Posted February 13, 2015 Wouldn't a tethered balloon do the job? Nev They've had practice at that in England... mind you it was about 70 years ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PA. Posted February 14, 2015 Share Posted February 14, 2015 A tethered balloon would only need to be 100 to 200' above the terrain to provide a good coverage for local events. The higher the balloon the bigger it would have to be to support the data link or power feed. I could imagine rescue helicopter pilots being not very happy to be flying into a trauma scene watching out for looking for that landing spot between the power lines and trees and having some drone fly past. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
facthunter Posted February 14, 2015 Share Posted February 14, 2015 Can't say I'm too happy about sharing airspace with R/C aircraft OR drones either. Nev Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marty_d Posted February 14, 2015 Share Posted February 14, 2015 Just be grateful that the flying car idea never really took off. There's enough idiots on the road, can you imagine them all in the sky? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
facthunter Posted February 14, 2015 Share Posted February 14, 2015 We should all fly as IF they are. Nev Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marty_d Posted February 14, 2015 Share Posted February 14, 2015 We should all fly as IF they are. Nev Luckily for the rest of you, I'm not flying... yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Perry Posted February 14, 2015 Author Share Posted February 14, 2015 They've had practice at that in England... mind you it was about 70 years ago. I assume you're alluding to the balloon barrages arround major ports & cities during WW2 Marty,. . . . I wonder if they really did any good other than for public morale,. . .the only aircraft of note which was shot down anywhere near the Thames Estuary barrage was the little one flown by Amy Johnson . . . . The local AA gunner Wot dunit. . .went public just a few years ago having stayed shtum for a very long time. . .! Anyway, wasn't his fault, . . he was just an AA bloke doing his job, and her "IFF" ( allegedly) did not respond as "Friend" when interrogated so they reckon. . . . . sad all the same. Don't know what she was doing unless working for the Transport Auxilliary, . . .brilliant bunch of brave ladies,. . but that's another thread. . . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Perry Posted February 14, 2015 Author Share Posted February 14, 2015 A tethered balloon would only need to be 100 to 200' above the terrain to provide a good coverage for local events. The higher the balloon the bigger it would have to be to support the data link or power feed. I could imagine rescue helicopter pilots being not very happy to be flying into a trauma scene watching out for looking for that landing spot between the power lines and trees and having some drone fly past. Depends what you mean by "Local" I suppose,. . . . and as for height, . . . a power cable is very heavy, . . .something which a Drone wouldn't have. . . until a way is found to transmit electricity via Wi foo . . . and I'm with you on the helicopter pilot's nightmare as well mate,. . . . tether cables and / or Drones buzzing around wouldn't be conducive to safe ops, especially in limited viz. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Perry Posted February 14, 2015 Author Share Posted February 14, 2015 Luckily for the rest of you, I'm not flying... yet. Can you give us all fair warning before you start. . .Mart. . . . . .? Phil Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Perry Posted February 14, 2015 Author Share Posted February 14, 2015 Just be grateful that the flying car idea never really took off. There's enough idiots on the road, can you imagine them all in the sky? Dunno about that one Marty, . . .I've recently watched a demo of yet another flying car design in the USA ( where else . . .) which looks quite nice. Didn't say if it was a good platform for "Beginners though,. . . you may have seen this one, it shows the car on a freeway initially, then flying. Didn't give any indication of the type and size of the engine, nor any projected costing either . . . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Perry Posted February 14, 2015 Author Share Posted February 14, 2015 I love the idea of blue sky thinking. It was the group Little Heroes who sang " one perfect day" and asked the question that we all ask " tell me, is it still raining there in England?". Drones don't cope well with the weight of precipitation. Yes,. . . . . .IT IS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marty_d Posted February 15, 2015 Share Posted February 15, 2015 Can you give us all fair warning before you start. . .Mart. . . . . .? Phil Phil, you're pretty safe, I'm about as far away from you as you can get! (10,806 miles, if you were in London). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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