Portable drone jammer uses a Raspberry Pi tactical Software Defined Radio
Ready for take-off? Not so fast.
Probably best not to try it in the US unless you want the FCC knocking on your door
It's good to be prepared before the need arises. These can be made, unused, put away for a rainy day. Maybe it'll never be needed.
This drone stuff is no joke, any dumb terrorist/criminal fuck with a few hundred dollars can get a drone & do terrible things. Evil people can never just be allowed to have the upper hand, with no countermeasures.
Better to be judged by twelve than carried by six.
In any case...it's either stuff like this, or jamming propellers, or steel birdshot. We've all seen the Ukrainian drone footage.
I bet some of 'em live in the 2.4 GHz range to use unregulated spectrum.
https://d-fendsolutions.com/blog/issues-with-jamming-drone-frequencies/
Commercial drones operate on four frequency bands: 2.4GHz, 5.8GHz, 433MHz and 915MHz.
You probably have something like a 2000 watt 2.4 GHz cavity magnetron transmitter. It's just normally got shielding around it -- your microwave oven.
Dunno if they hit a wide enough spectrum to blot out drones, though.
kagis
https://www.uavjammer123.com/introduction-to-drone-frequency-bands/
- 2.4 GHz ISM Band
Frequency Range: 2.400 – 2.4835 GHz
Usage: This band is widely used for remote control and data transmission, including consumer drones.
https://www.sfu.ca/phys/346/121/resources/physics_of_microwave_ovens.pdf
The magnetrons in domestic microwave ovens emit microwaves at 2.45 GHz (repeatable, each time the magnetron is switched on, to ±10 MHz) with bandwidths of only a few MHz [6]
So, looks like not, if the frequency range is ~83 MHz wide and the magnetron in use only has bandwidth of a few MHz.
They are also frequency-hopping, meaning they constantly switch what part of the band they use, and there are a few rc radio protocols use a dual frequency system for redundancy. FRsky has one that does 2.4Ghz and 900Mhz at the same time.
So to make sure you are jamming all (commercial) drones, you need to deafen everything from ~850Mhz up to 5.9Ghz.
Or hang on to it for when that doesn't matter at all.
Yeah keep it unopened ready for when the shooting starts.
Take it out and practice, test. Just move around while you do so.
Oh man. I need a tactical software defined radio for my cosplay outfit……oh wait, tactical SDR’s are not a thing. What a shit article title.