I became a certified Part 107 Remote Pilot to fly our local Volunteer Fire Department drone. The department owns a Mavic 2 Enterprise Advanced drone that has a thermal imaging camera. Within 10 days of getting my certification, we tried to find an individual that wandered off in the night. We flew a couple of search legs when the report came in that the subject had been found. Within a year we flew two more search missions using the thermal camera.
One thing that bothered me was not having the ability to talk with local aircraft or traffic control while flying the drone. I purchased a used aeronautical band handheld at a hamfest (which only needed a new battery) as a starting point. Searching the FCC website for any information on how to get a VHF license for a drone was frustrating. Current FCC regulations state that the radios must be aboard the aircraft (kind of impossible on a drone). It does not allow for ground operations. A Notice of Proposed Rulemaking is in the works to eliminate this problem.
Drones can inspect towers and antennas by taking still or video pictures, can fly an antenna pull line over trees and even act as a repeater platform. A handheld attached to a drone is legal – the radio is colocated with the drone. With an above the ground altitude of 400 ft (flight limit for a drone), the communications range can be very good. A video of such a configuration is here.
Weather flying a drone or a model aircraft, having a technician license may be required. Some frequencies used by drone First Person View (FPV) systems operate in the 5.8 MHz ham radio bands (between 5,650mhz to 5,925mhz.). These frequencies are governed by FCC Part 97. If the FPV system is Type 15 certified, then the operator is fine but if they want to operate on the high power modes, a ham radio license is required.
Drones and Ham Radio are a great combination to explore new uses, provide better service, and increase the knowledge and practices of both hobbies.
