OT: Opinions about this situation?

Awesome. Props to Merideth (all four of them). ;) I hope he has it mounted and set over his fireplace.

I hope they set a nice firm precedent about privacy invasion. It must have been hanging around there for awhile if he had time to go get his

Personally I'd prefer to jam a knife into the interlock of a microwave oven--though that would take longer.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

So far here in AZ we've had a little-old-lady type in Mesa shoot down a _police_ drone with a shot gun... she was charged, but a judge threw the case out. ...Jim Thompson

Are there specified frequency bands for drones? Maybe it's time to build up a KW pulsed oscillator with a helical antenna >:-}

...Jim Thompson

...Jim Thompson

But that'll let it come back to life when you turn off the jammer. Frying the receiver is so much more satisfying, and won't interrupt your neighours' wifi for more than a few seconds.

Plus when the FCC comes to the door, there's nothing to see. ;)

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

The other thing I want is a robotically-controlled paintball gun to chase the deer away. In the winter, the paintballs would freeze, which would make them much more effective. ;)

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

How about a simple spark... like from my CDI that can throw a thick 1" arc... tie it to some kind of antenna? ...Jim Thompson

Sure. You want a different configuration than that exactly, but J. C. Bose was doing microwave spark gap transmitters over a century ago:

Tim

Good excuse for those Grekhov pulser tricks. Bet the FCC could be looking right at it and not know what it was. "What, a 1N4007?"

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

It's an electronic peeping Tom as it was used in this case.

Cute. The tiny drones in the US use 433 MHz while the better drones use 2.4GHz FHSS (frequency hopping spread spectrum). A FM sweep jammer doesn't work well on a spread spectrum wireless link. However, there are tricks to improve jamming effectiveness, which I don't want to get into.

The cheap hobby flavor use simple FM modulation on 2.4GHz with a deviation of +/-1.5KHz. You can "capture" such an FM receiver with just a stronger carrier. No need for anything fancy.

Some detail:

I see visions of a 2.4GHz barbeque grill antenna, on a PTZ (pan, tilt, zap) mounting, that optically tracks the done with a CMOS camera, and aims a generous helping of RF at it until it goes nuts. It could be automated, but it seems that it would be more fun to remote steer the dish from the living room with a joy stick, and watch the drone crash on the TV (image intensifier and instant replay optional).

The surest signs of success are pollution, abuse, and use for criminal activities. Drones are probably not totally successful, as they haven't produced any pollution (yet).

Instead of RF, I suggest a more direct approach: Let the arms race begin and be the first to dominate your neighborhood.

Ah, the ultra broadband all-frequency jammer. Yeah, directed energy weapons will work. I was thinking more like an 8 ft C-band dish antenna with a microwave oven mounted at the focus. Open the door, jam the interlock on, and many kilowatts (peak) of RF can be aimed.

However, that doesn't really solve the problem and creates additional problems with the regulatory authorities, which are hungry for cash after selling off most of the available spectrum. Instead, I suggest something simpler, such as a rooftop water cannon. I can think of dozens of ways to package water, such as water balloons, pressure hose, vortex concentrators, fire hose, etc. Point, shoot, and short (the circuitry). I suspect water will suffice, but if additional kinetic energy is required, just add some corn starch, which is incompressible for high velocity impacts, but fairly benign at lower velocities. Whatever the mechanism, water has the advantage of not doing much damage if you overshoot the target.

It's also tempting to revert back to the barrage balloons of WWI and WWII. Just suspend some helium balloons with some wire, and wait for the drones to get entangles. Aerial mines might also work, but might be a bit dangerous to have hovering over your house.

Drones also don't like wind gusts very much. Wham-o had "air blaster" and "airzooka" toys (toroid air vortex cannons): It could probably flip over a drone with a well directed air blast. I've seen upscaled versions that require ear and overpressure protection. Personally, I think a propane cannon would be sufficient, but that has additional safety issues.

Maybe something like this?

Handles the recoil pretty well, but of course it just appears to be a .22. It would be more impressive with a 9mm or .45ACP handgun.

--sp

Well stop peeping TOM !

Jamie

Cheers

Water cannon is a top idea

Just thinking you could fire ice at it - nothing to see afterwards - but I think water is the best idea

If he didn't discharge a firearm in city limits or some other no-no, I'd be surprised if they don't find some other way to hang him.

After all, the police, and government will want the ability to snoop on citizens, and a "right to privacy" would be a bad precedent to set.

Just a matter of time before drones carry small arms...