I was reading an article that listed what tech products preppers needed. On the list was a camera drone. I have never considered having a drone for prepper/survivalist needs. Drones have become quite popular and at most events, there is often one flying around. The author of the article gave her reasons for owning a drone: 5 Pieces of Tech Every Survivalist Needs Her first reason is reconnaissance. Yes, a drone can be used for this but if there is a human/threat near, they may hear or see the drone. I do believe that a drone could be more of a giveaway to your location vs. what the footage would show you. Maybe if one has a BOL and wants to patrol their AO easily then maybe a drone would be handy. Has anyone considered owning a drone with camera and using it after SHTF?
I have considered it for a few years, but I have other uses for the limited discretionary funds that I have... Maybe this winter...
our military almost never deploys without drones any more .. drones costing from $600 to $300 Million a piece
I have given it serious thought. Haven't gotten around to it yet. Been thinking of getting a cheaper "toy" to learn the ropes then maybe step up for a nicer unit. In the fall/winter it could be more useful around here as there is much less foliage compared to now.
yep what @Tully Mars said start small then upgrade the drone will crash, it happens, which is why ya have to have parts on hand ..
My neighbor thinks I have a camera drone and fly it around her house it mite not help that I stand out in the yard with a block of wood with a anttenn attached with drink cap noobs painted black and put my cell phone on top like a screen and look at the sky when she rides by rumor have it I use it to spy on her her it is
Not in my mind, drones are noisy as all get out, I can hear the one we use from a 1/4 mile if it makes vibrations it has a signature. it can be found and tracked they can be jammed by better technology because they use a remote they also give GPS location and return to their remote if they loose contact automatically. Every warlord and bandit either comes in a sweeping line or sends out scouts a drone does not have the range to circle and return by alternate route, to avoid giving away your position. America has the most technologically advanced military with all the gizmos and gadgets compared to all the nations we have fought so ? why did we not win in Korea, Vietnam, drug wars in Columbia and we are 17 years in our present quagmire and we are using drones and UAV's satellites lidar radar and everything else we can throw at it and we still have people dying and nothing has changed. Afghanistan was fighting the Russians 14 years and then among each other then us for 17 years PLEASE consider that a group of sheepherders have fought off the Russians and us for years with hand held small arms RPG's and a shit load of Toyota pickups with 12.7 MM guns on them and a some bigger stuff but not much and in that part of the world if it moves it leave a dust trail -- DUH ! I don't like lamb and not their 15 different versions of their perfect religion that kill each other as well as everyone else, I have plenty of sand and rock already all else they have is opium and we can make synthetic pain medications. So why are we there TESTING DRONES UAV's AND ALL OUR TOYS AND WE ARE STILL 17 YEARS IN AND COUNTING. I know how to stop the war bomb all the Toyota factories then they be afoot. Technology has yet to stop any group hell bent on fighting killing or being a pain our best equipment against people that don't bathe many are inbred and fight and kill each other as we are killing them is not working there are still 1.2 billion of them ! If and it's the only way any power could stop us from a major reprisal would be EMP weapons so all tech would be junk even your watch in many cases. The drone here cost a grand can be operated by a phone app as well as a remote has all the bells and whistles and I would rather have a couple of 10/22's and a couple cases of ammo in a real holy crap event in my opinion. here is all it takes to hear at distance from 1917 - 1940 listening posts
My brother-in-law has a few, I suspect if the SHTF they will come to our farm and he can use it for patrol. If he runs it high enough I can't hear it.
We got a little MAVIC pro from Costco, the darn thing is so fricking useful, I don't know how we got by with out it! With rebates +upgrades, the total was right around a grand!
My little Mavic with the upgrade batteries and improved quiet props will last almost 1/2 hour, and some of the racing drones can last over an hour. The nice thing about the litrle Mavic is it' super small size, you could alost carry it in a jacket pocket and no one knows you have it, and once it's up and flying, it's very quiet, and it's small size makes it very hard to spot. It's also VERY good at low and slow creeping in and amongst things, so much so that you gotta watch out for larger spider webs, and yes, I got it tangled up in a few big webs scouting along the ground! Lol. There are also tons of upgrades and aftermarket support for it, so upgrades are easy and cheap to do. Some work well, others are more a gimmick, so do your reseach! For the more adventurous, you can buy "Kits" for the racing drones and add the camera of choice and still be as capable and the store bought units, but the racing drones have some serious advantages, they are a hell of a lot faster, can cover more area much faster, and usually have a much longer flight time. They can also be built very light and compact, giving them a serious edge in performance!
I've considered them, but the noise, and "return home" on lost control signal concerns me. I've diverged into counter drone thought experiments instead. Given their popularity with LEOs and others I would want the ability to disrupt or capture the control uplink and perhaps steal the video feed. All the "reasonably priced" versions operate on 2.4 and 5.8 Ghz for control/video. this is the same as wifi for the most part. Some also use .9Ghz and 1.2 Ghz for the video. My major stumbling block is that th better ones are frequency agile, and will change offset or modulation frequency if it detect interference. None of these operating frequencies are a particular challenge as far as building a transmitter powerful enough to over ride the "owners" signal, stealing the video feed should be straight forward, but frequency hopping is a challenge.
I look at drones somewhat like how you follow bees to the hive. One could reveal their BOL, as range is somewhat limited. Nice tool for hunting, scouting ahead of a relocation when you suspect there may be hostile forces about, but recon from a fixed base I see as a risk.