Prosecutions for illegal 5.8Ghz video transmitters.

[Jumpy07]

http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/foi/2013/february/1-226185173.pdf

[Biffa]

Zero complaints or fines, what does that tell you about that illegal aspect of the hobby.

[Jumpy07]

I think what that says is that they have not had to prosecute anyone due to any complaints regarding interference caused by illegal VTX';s


The fact that most of us fly well away from the general public or urban areas are probably the reason why, that and we all use legal radio gear...

[nub]

what does that tell you about that illegal aspect of the hobby.

that it needs to be policed better?

i think the limit on the vtx power is very unfair.

[cosmorogers]

Zero complaints or fines

yet..... 

[teslahed]

I strongly suggest everyone involved with the hobby continues to act sensibly at all times and doesn';t do stuff like go whizzing down their local high street using their FPV gear just because they could.

I am guessing (without knowing for sure) that the laws on 5.8ghz will suddenly start being enforced the day that people start making a nuisance of themselves.

So it';s in all our interests not to do that.

As Jumpy points out - most of us fly in rural areas away from houses, military installations and large commercial enterprises of the sort that are likely to notice and care about a few mW more than are technically legal. Flying in such locations is more fun and it';s more relaxing not to have to dodge members of the public anyway. Long may this continue!

If you crash into a police station or similar and they bother to inspect your gear then there';s a good chance someone will notice the mW levels on your transmitter. That';s the point where this could all change. So lets all be careful.

[Biffa]

Or it tells you that the 25mw legal limit is way to low and that 600mw isn';t an issue at all

[teslahed]

The kind of stuff 5.8ghz is likely to interfere with isn';t that critical anyway. It';s mostly Wifi networks - a lot of them do actually run on 5.8ghz now as well as 2.4ghz. You wont be interfering with emergency services or mobile phone networks or other commercial broadcasts which is what would really get you noticed.

But if enough people started hovering over the centre of town broadcasting massively powerful signals on 5.8ghz to the point that everyone started noticing their wireless performance degrading then maybe someone would actually do something about it.

There are of course other reasons why you shouldn';t be hovering over residential neighbourhoods anyway so i suspect this is a large part of why it hasn';t been an issue so far.

[barneyg]

The rules state you should not use more that 25w of Power on 5.8ghz and there have been no prosecutions for, or reports of, breaking this rule ... clearly nobody is breaking it 

[nub]

But if enough people started hovering over the centre of town broadcasting massively powerful signals on 5.8ghz to the point that everyone started noticing their wireless performance degrading then maybe someone would actually do something about it.

hmmm maybe one of you guys with a 600mw vtx could do a wee test to see what kind of interfere/performance degrading there is with it powered up near your wifi router?

would be interesting to know what effect there was if anything at all.

[Biffa]

hmmm maybe one of you guys with a 600mw vtx could do a wee test to see what kind of interfere/performance degrading there is with it powered up near your wifi router?

would be interesting to know what effect there was if anything at all.

Nothing that I have noticed

[kilby]

Happily only 3 or 4 channels for WiFi live close to (or in) the 5.8GHz range that 5.8 kit should be using (that is also limited to 25mW short range devices)

However considering some of the items coming out of China may not be using what they should be using.

Radar can take big chunks out of the available spectrum between 5.2 & 5.8GHz

(Sorry I just finished a week of training on high end access points and am trying to forget some of it, normal service will be resumes ASAP)

[Oakie]

http://www.tegola.org.uk/howto/spectrum.html

Might be handy to reference for those using 5.8Ghz

It shows quite clearly that Government use this part of the spectrum and also point to point at 4 watts, by licence.

Lets not forget about the medical world that use this band as well.

we have no primary rights unfortunatly, secondary users that may cause interference will be closed if no way of removing interference is found.

I have seen from the far east, add on amplifiers for  5.8 fpv so the problem will only get worse.

The 35Mhz option.......

Paul

[teslahed]

I would definitely discourage anyone from buying one of the silly powerful 1 watt or above 5.8 ghz FPV transmitters which i';ve seen popping up on various chinese RC websites.

Firstly you are that much more likely to cause problems for other people. Both your fellow FPV fliers and also anyone else using the frequencies.

Secondly you';ll drain your flight battery faster.

Thirdly you will probably start to have issues with noise leaking outside of the 5.8ghz frequencies doing funny things to your 2.4ghz control and other stuff along those lines. If you fit a 1.5 watt FPV transmitter (they do exist) and then your quadcopter falls out the sky (with perfect video all the way down) don';t say i didn';t warn you.

Fourthly they start to get quite heavy which isn';t good except on larger aircraft anyway.

Good aerials and a low to moderate power 5.8ghz transmitter should be all you need. That and a good receiver setup - maybe diversity if you are really worried.

Of course exactly what constitutes ';low to moderate'; is open to debate  . But 1 watt and above as is now available is definitely not it.