Drone Harassment

Don't own one "yet" but need to come this summer to spot wildfires coming this way since we have no warning system here. Also be nice to have one to check the mail to see if packages have been delivered or not. Mailbox is about 3 miles away and more than once they put down delivered only to be holding the package in town and that's a 6 mile walk or drive for no reason, waste of time. Also this is a private road that ends up with people not belonging down here so it takes a minute to crank the truck up to go investigate, walking takes a bit across the property to go see what's going on and they are gone by the time I get there. Nothing more irritating than seeing ATV ruts on your property not knowing who did it cause they are already gone.

Everyone here needs to fight against drone invasions, even if you have not yet been directly affected. Many local governments are working to use them to spy on tax payers, and some are already doing it. The courts do not have a unified stance on the matter, but I will happily argue it in any court. Some courts seem to think you cannot expect privacy because airplanes commonly fly over, but airplanes typically do not fly 100ft overhead, with high rez optics. That is a ridiculous claim. I don't think people understand the court system. There is a thing called evidence that is required. I have personally FORCED that evidence from my county, not due to drones, but another matter where they are obviously using high power optics to spy. They realized I was going to destroy them in court due to their invasion of privacy and harassment, and they dismissed.

We have been development anti drone munitions and tech. Even though the FAA tries to classify these as an aircraft, and you would be downing an aircraft, I would still take that challenge in any court. This would be little different than any 'stand your ground' or 'right to self defense' law. I would make that drone disappear. Get a warrant FROM A JUDGE to come look for it. One defense I see as reasonable is 'self defense'. These things can literally be loaded with weapons, you are scared of it! You thought it was an alien and you were going to die. Smartest approach is just like shooting someone.....shut your mouth until you discuss with your atty.

I would be willing to bet if one was spying in a backyard 20ft away and you drop it, not a single soul will come looking for it, because that in and of itself is proof of where it was operated. Some of these require an FAA license to fly, and if they get hammered for an illegal flight, they lose their license. OR, they have no license at all, which is likely illegal right there.

Either way, put them down! As to how, I will not hand out all my tech at the moment, but we are not working on a 12ga solution because of the way a firearm law is written. Compressed air is not considered a firearm, though I suspect legal pricks will work to change this. The discharge of such a device is NOT a firearm discharge currently.

Good call fastline, I agree with you but I also understand Spud's uses. There's a somewhat fine line, but spying isn't cool.

I'm hearing vortex cannon...

Potato guns are still legal, right. As long as they make aqua-net and starting fluid, and a sack o spuds , we're good to go.

Not sure how the law goes here, but if it's not a toy, you have to be licensed to operate one. There are no fly zones, like bridges, and around air ports. I think there is an altitude restriction as well. They are a great tool for ground search and rescue, especially in the late fall and winter when the leaves are off the tree. If a thief is using one, it must be stolen. Buddy I work with has one, and he paid $1600.00 for it.

There are also no-fly zones around prisons. They built 2 prisons about 4 miles from my large woodlot and I can't use a drone there. Irritating because a drone would be great for timber cruising.

Want to send a drone to the ground or wherever but where it intends to go and not get caught or be seen, jam the signal. It’s against legality of posting the plans but it involves cordless phone signal which is the same wavelength as drones and Wi-Fi mixed with a satellite dish that’s small enough to be portable. If you can simulate a EMP in its direction also will send it to the ground namely the same thing a microwave puts out using similar device. Lastly you can really fry it with a parabolic mirror for lowest tech way

Or block the gps signal. Illegal as He77 but prove you did it. When it comes down step on it.

I like Spuds direction, unfortunately I lack the super secret, secret squirrel skills to pull off such a feat. Doesn't mean I don't wanna try.

funwithfuel said:

I like Spuds direction, unfortunately I lack the super secret, secret squirrel skills to pull off such a feat. Doesn't mean I don't wanna try.

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Start with blocking those smart speakers like “Alexa”, when you have done that you are on the right path

I work on the security team at our local annual County Fair and they have a "No drones" policy on the Fairgrounds. This Fair attracts 35,000 to 50,000 people per day for 5 days. There are usually a few high profile country artists giving concerts evenings. That's where we see the drones, recording the concerts. There's about 50 of us in Security all in radio contact and when one is spotted we spread out to find the operator. If they're off site by any distance there's not much we can do but we often find the operators on site. I don't know if these are federal or state laws but anyone who flies on the Fairgrounds is subject to some pretty serious charges. One State Police Sergeant is very well educated in drone law and I've seen him put an operator in tears with the charges he faced.

Both the Sate Police and Sheriff's Dept have headquarters on the Fairgrounds and both have their own drones they send up and track the offending drones with. I haven't seen one on my property but it would really **** me off to find one snooping around. The 870 and 00 will certainly be my first thought.

Vetech63 said:

I havent seen any over my property yet, but I have a 10-gauge goose gun that will reach it at some point.

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As Daffy Duck used to say,

"Shoot 'em on the rise. It's more sporting that way."

I just remembered, a neighboring fire department had a rope gun. It would fire a rescue rope across a distance, I've seen it send a rope 100 feet across a creek to rescue someone caught in flood waters. I bet something like that could be rigged to take a net with it, or might even have a cartridge set up to do just that.

Haven't had any problems here....yet.
But then there is that Remington SP-10 in the safe.

Ed

checking the mail is a great idea Spud. I can also get you set up with long range radios for a network connection to a camera, and have it all work on a solar panel at the far end. You do need line of sight for that to work, or a relay(s) with Line of Sight (LOS).

skyking1 said:

checking the mail is a great idea Spud. I can also get you set up with long range radios for a network connection to a camera, and have it all work on a solar panel at the far end. You do need line of sight for that to work, or a relay(s) with Line of Sight (LOS).

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Yeah not straight LOS for that to work, I figure to NAP the earth with the drone to not bother anyone or irritate anyone, then again either they might be too drunk to notice it, too stoned to see that far, or too crazy to think it was real.

I have no issues at all with drones. They are extremely helpful tools and there are countless ways they are being employed. I know I could use one badly for many reasons and I know farmers that use them to check cows! However, as with many things, like guns, some will find deviant or illegal uses. I bring up government use because governments don't do it illegally, they get someone to write a law that grants them that power. A power that I HIGHLY doubt most citizens would approve of.

Regarding anti drone tech, there are a few techniques that work, but some are illegal. Jamming radio signals will not do much to a modern drone as they are programmed to remember their flight path for a "return to home" feature, should comms be lost. But really the first step is target acquisition. It is one thing to shoot down a drone you see, it is another to even be alerted to their presence.

I think drones present a different issue in densely populated areas as I have seen people fly them literally down busy streets. You technically have no authority if it is not over your own property and the current property hold for many city dwellers is maybe 15k sf at best.

To be honest, I am not entirely sure DOD level defense systems are the practical answer. I tend to think something like FAA requirements that ALL drones must have an enabled GPS becon that can be broadcast to all cell towers and people can use a phone and get alerts to drone activity. A GPS registry can assign a unique GPS ID to a drone and a flight path can be obtained. It seems overkill, and mostly half baked as an idea, but it seems reasonable that if someone is flying a drone over your property, you should have the right to know about it! As with recreational aircraft, those are manned and usually they are at much higher altitudes, but drones typically are flying low and operating high quality optics and video systems.

Just something I was thinking about.

One problem some of you may not be aware of is the wildfire situation in the west, and drones.

Every summer there are fires of the natural vegetation every day, it is just a fact of life. Every fire gets a response of fire engines, buses with hand crews, bulldozers on lowboys, chiefs in cars, and usually at least 4 different airplanes and helicopters. The whole operation is sort of like a combined arms military engagement. The eye in the sky airplane orbits up high, tankers [bombers] orbit the opposite directions down lower except when they make their runs when they peel of and come in low and straight, and helicopters operate low in the terrain coming and going from water dip holes.

People like to put up their drones to see the action, but policy is that the whole airshow vacates when this happens, because they can't keep track of where the drone is, who is operating it, and if it is going to get sucked into someone's engine or smack their windshield.

The fire cops try to catch whoever is flying them, but it is whack-a-mole.

fastline said:

Everyone here needs to fight against drone invasions, even if you have not yet been directly affected. Many local governments are working to use them to spy on tax payers, and some are already doing it.

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Several jobsites around here the past few years have seen drones loitering overhead, turned out it was OSHA. Have heard anecdotal reports of citations being issued from that practice.