As more tower sites adopt drones for maintenance tasks, one amateur radio operator has designed a field strength instrument designed to be mounted to a drone.
Rudi Wiedemann (K7RAW) developed DroneScan3D and sells the models on his eBay page. The instrument is intended to allow amateur radio operators and others to measure the relative electric field strengths around an RF source in three dimensions.
It is listed as compatible with RF from 1 kHz–440 MHz. The instrument comes with 60 inches of 20-gauge magnet wire.
The instrument does not come with a drone itself.
Wiedemann said it allows users to compare results against antenna modeling programs like EZNEC, so they can make antenna changes more favorable to their needs.
The instrument is a low-noise, logarithmic receiver/amplifier. While mounted to a drone, it captures an antenna’s RF electric field strength in dBV as the drone flies around the antenna.
It hosts a WiFi hotspot with approximately 200 feet of coverage that users can connect to via their mobile device to take readings from a virtual dashboard. The hotspot supports firmware updates.
It is also designed with amateur radio operations in mind, including integration with the included AutoKeyer device, which plugs directly into a transmitter’s key input jack.
DroneScan3D is approximately 72 mm long x 37 mm wide x 28 mm high, weighing 44 grams without an antenna. Its processor is a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 WH.
