Dealing With Drones

How can I deal with a drone that violates my personal airspace? The law prevents me from deploying any of my AAA assets, including even a wimpy little .22 skeet load, so I am limited to getting my own drone and using it for point defense. At least this tactic has the benefit of plausible deniability (Gosh, I didn't mean for that collision to happen...).

That is, until now...
[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Xj-0D5eJtQ[/media]

May have to get me one of those.

 

Balloons might work. On a windy day so could kites. Some places do recognize "personal airspace" others don't. Jammers are also a possibility. A spark gap transmitter will do a decent job of jamming many frequencies although that may be a problem as well.

 

Jammers are verboten in the USA. The feds won't even allow state and local law enforcement to have them.

https://www.fcc.gov/general/jamming-cell-phones-and-gps-equipment-against-law

https://www.yahoo.com/tech/a-florida-resident-drove-around-with-a-cellphone-jammer-84369099229.html

One could probably get away with using a short range version, though, if used discretely and as long as it didn't interfere with cell phone or police radio frequencies.

 

There are jammers and there are jammers. An RC unit set to transmit on the same frequency as the controlling unit on the drone can jam it and is legal as far as the FCC is concerned (you might want to have an RC car or something similar to justify it though). If it is close enough to you and far enough from the controller a arc welder can probably jam it as well. Both of those would be legal. A parabolic dish or other antenna that was designed to be very directional and frequency specific (and steerable) while illegal would be very hard to pick up as it would transmit most of it's signal into space.

There are also plans you can find on the internet to significantly up the power of laser pointers possibly into the range where they could do some damage especially if held on a drone for any significant time. I'm pretty sure these are legal to own in most places but the use of them against a drone might be pushing it although it might again be hard to prove. Starting with a laser cutter could produce and even more powerful unit.

Balloons might still be the best route. One could use pairs with netting between them. A can of helium is fairly cheap as are Mylar balloons. As long as you don't go to high you're not breaking any rules that I know of.

 

Try Flak

 

Is there a legal ownership of airspace above property? Anyhow what is your problem with this drone? Live and let live.

Brian

 

In the US I think it varies from state to state. There was also a program that didn't necessarily have the force of law but where people could request their property be off limits for drone over flights and at least some drones would have software to honor those requests.

Some people have for whatever reason a (I think legitimate) expectation of privacy in their back yards especially if fenced in. Some drones also have a rather annoying acoustic signature I believe. They may have an impact on birds or other wildlife or even domestic animals. Turkeys for instance have been known to react very strongly to over flights to the point of injuring or even killing themselves or each other.

There has been at least one case of an individual shooting down a drone that was hovering over his property. Apparently a judge thought he was within his rights. He did state that he wouldn't have done so if it hadn't been hovering (specifically over his teenage daughter who was sun bathing).

If that sort of thing is what you object to then the upgraded laser pointer may be the way to go. It wouldn't necessarily damage the drone but I suspect it could overload the camera sensors.

 

The FAA recently passed regulations about drones defining them as aircraft. I think they had police drones in mind, but it still protects neighborhood a-holes trying to look at your teenage daughter through the window. At any rate, the gray area about blasting them out of the sky is gone. I suppose you could still hide and shoot them down if you're sure that you aren't visible. A scoped .22 would be just the ticket, then a few extra rounds to destroy the battery and internals so the images of you disposing of it in your trash aren't transmitted back.

Not that I would ever do anything like that, I lied.

 

Also suitable for washing cars, patios, garden furniture...
More powerful models are available.

 

OK so a perv with a camera is a perv with a camera, if a guy walked past my house talking pictures I would take him and his camera down.

See no reason in these circumstances why they cannot be disabled, taken down etc but surely the main issue is to trace them back and deal with the person flying them. Now there is where a gun would come in handy.

Brian

 

The better drones aren't very cheap and the cheaper ones don't have much range or loiter time. In one case the loss of the drone hurts financially in the other it isn't all that hard to track down the controller. I'm not sure what the law is regarding videos taken by drones. Apparently the law in the US is that your property extends up to 83 ft above the ground. Of course trespass laws are not what some people think they are either. If a person is on your property but not doing any damage you can't charge him (or her) with anything unless they are under a restraining order or refuse to leave when asked (repeated incursions could arguably constitute refusing to leave). So even if the drone is at say 50 ft unless it's damaging in some way it's not fair game. Of course if you want to put up balloons with a monofilament net between them on your property that's your privilege and if the drone damages them then it is trespassing.

 

Not sure why this is even a grey area. Someone flies a drone in my personal space, it should be fair game.
Wonder why gov is even dragging its feet. Maybe they want to use drones for gov in the future, and dont want to set any precedents.

 

Jamming probably would not work as expected, because most drones will go into hover mode upon loss of signal. Given the battery life of even a modest, several hundred dollar camera drone, they will hover for about 20 minutes. Further, IIRC most make use of frequency hopping, so you would probably need a broad spectrum jammer - which would probably cause more headaches for your neighbors and yourself.

As to weaponry...I would think a scoped pellet/bb rifle would suffice to take out the camera optics...Along with much less concern as to causing collateral damage if you miss. Still BB/pellet gun laws vary from state to state.

Still, the cheapest option would likely be to buy a cheapo drone for yourself. You won't need long battery life and it's only going to be used once. You can probably see where I am going with this...Ramming Speed!

 

From what I gathered the original British land ownership rules gave you the rights to everything both below and above the land as far as high as one could imagine. The problem with that was it would have made air travel impractical. So in the US they established a "reasonable" altitude after which it became public property (the aforementioned 83 ft or something close to that). Likewise international law recognizes that nations don't own the space above the atmosphere. The problem of course was no one envisioned drones with the capabilities of the ones we have today. RC aircraft have been flying for quite some time and usually aren't considered a problem although technically they are drones. However they tend to be noisier and until recently couldn't carry the sensors of the quality to make much of a difference as far as privacy goes. Modern technology is outrunning both laws and conventions in many cases this is just one.

 

What happened in WW1? These new fandangled "planes" being used to spy on our troops! Well they designed a plane to down them...the future may be to deploy your own drone...

 

Only if your name is FPSRussia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNPJMk2fgJU

 

If the range is close enough one could legally use a golf club....

[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LZd_n-b5RQ[/media]

 

Never mess with a retired senior citizen holding a golf club.

 

A couple of champs, doing what was necessary...little tools are upset!??