Telemetry in Australia

Posted by Glen Leeon on May 19, 2014 at 10:08pm

I have an Iris from 3DR and would like to connect a OSD and fly some auto missions.

What is the correct telemetry frequency we are allowed to use in Australia?

915mhz or 433mhz.

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Replies

    • Adam Warburton > Glen Leeon May 19, 2014 at 11:53pm
      I use a larger 3dbi antenna on the drone and a 5dbi antenna on the groundstation and in clear line of sight I have made it 1km with almost 100% signal strength.
      The stock antennas actually do surprisingly well probably 500m at least with no obstructions and interference.
    • Adam Warburton > Glen Leeon May 19, 2014 at 11:43pm
      I would recommend the 915mhz. In theory 433mhz would be slightly better on range but as you can only use 1/4 of the power it's probably not as good in this case.
      By default the radios are outputting their max (100mW) but it can be set in Mission Planner.

      I'm not too sure about the radio licenses, I've been looking online and it seems like you have to do a course. There are usually local hobby groups by the sounds of it.
    • Glen Leeon May 19, 2014 at 11:42pm

      So what kind of range would I expect from this unit? It seems to be only a little dinky thing. Antenna is only 100mm. Don't know if that big or small for this type of thing. I know my antenna in my phone isn't visible any longer. So line of sight range? Again I don't know if 50m is good, or 500m is average?

  • Adam Warburton May 19, 2014 at 10:48pm
    Well technically both, however without any sort of license at 433mhz the telemetry modules must be set back to 25mW whereas 915mhz can be be used legally at the full power (100mW).
    I use 915mhz and never had any issues, investing in some higher gain antennas will help you get some decent ranges with that.
    • Adam Warburton May 19, 2014 at 11:02pm
      915mhz is ok to use up to 1W so long as the transmitters are frequency hopping with a minimum of 50 channels (which the 3DR radios are). It's a different story with single channel transmitters like FPV video transmitters, I can't remember exactly but you either cannot use it at all or only at very low powers.

      433mhz has no provision for frequency hopping so it's 25mW no matter how you broadcast without a license.
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