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Comment by lazide | Hacker News Reader

DJI drones don’t use any comms infrastructure, do they?

DJI sells a product called Aeroscope which is an antenna platform used by airport towers; it shows them via the frequencies the drones operate on where the drone is, that it is active, all information tied to the serial number including the drone pilot's FAA registration (who the owner of the drone is, the pilot's phone number, their address, etc.) It also this shows them the location of the pilot via the remote control frequency.

This applies even for their sub-$1000 consumer drones, and FAA registration is mandatory for all drones above 250g weight.

What does that have to do with the comments?

That also isn’t using US comms infrastructure, correct?

My understanding is that is all broadcast via the ‘unregulated’ bands between the drone and controller + bits that are mandated to be broadcast by the FAA.

That was my assumption too but why specifically call this out? I'm just confused by this statement and want to figure out what's actually in the bill...

I’d assume it’s so they can look they they’re doing something while actually doing nothing at all.

Some of their higher end competition like the ACSL SOTEN [1] have LTE connectivity for remote control, this might just be to limit competition at the high end of the market.

1. https://product.acsl.co.jp/en/product/post-369/

> ACSL SOTEN [1] have LTE connectivity for remote control

LTE connectivity that would use US infrastructure (LTE towers) for its connection.

Unless the drones start shipping with satellite radio, I'm not sure what the scare is about, seems to be mostly about that Chinese products just shouldn't be available to the average American.

GPS? Also your phone is on the cell network and the software is connecting to the network over that.

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