With Drone / UAV Remote ID now required in the USA. Any thoughts on using a/the Bluetooth receiver on an existing FA Receiver to listen for Remote ID based Drone/UAV? DroneScanner App is doing this as a iOS app and Bluetooth. If you can get this to work, people would likely install extended range BT antenna to increase coverage.
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Since the OP asked for ‘thoughts’, these are mine (I hold part 107 license, fly commercial as well as for local government agency). I won’t go into the subjective arguments about the remote ID (RID) regulations, they are upon us now. While an interesting concept, there are things to consider in light of ‘is the juice worth the squeeze’ of FA being modified to track this, in my opinion.
This post is somewhat long, retirement puts too much time on my hands…
Background: For those occasions where the powers that be (TBTB) need to track and find illegal or hazardous operations of foreign and domestic drones, the equipment and apps have long been around before RID. For example: DJI’s Aeroscope. There is a constant stream of wireless communication in the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands between the drone and controller that would be monitored and could be used for this purpose. The hardware/software is available legally to only certain credentialed agencies here in the US, or to any ‘other uncivil’ persons illegally. The RID portion of the drone operates independent of the 2.4/5GHz communications with the controller, regardless if the RID is built into the drone or a separate broadcast module. As of the date of this post, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) requires ALL drones to broadcast RID when powered on (well, military might just not do that, like with ADS-B, in my experience). ENFORCEMENT of that requirement is technically deferred until March 15, 2024.
RID is built into most consumer drones manufactured within the past year or so. Owners/pilots own a very expensive collection of parts if RID is not detected to be working, as the drone is prevented from responding to ‘take off’ and any flight commands; this is commonly known as a ‘bricked device’. Older drones without built-in RID are not affected by that restriction, but are ‘illegal’ to fly without a separate broadcast module.
Drone operators are required to give way (avoid) commercial and general aviation already; while useful for collision avoidance, it is interesting to speculate whether such pilots would benefit from this additional scanning of the environment near them.
There are several challenges to capturing or monitoring RID transmissions, listed in no particular order.
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Operations duration - flight time can vary from 15-40 minutes in the air, during which RID would be transmitting. Once the drone’s power is off, RID is usually off (broadcast module may be powered separately). The drones would be around for very short periods, much like tracking aircraft we do in this hobby.
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Distance, objects - Wireless and Bluetooth are short-distance (less than a mile) transmissions. Since techically the pilot needs to be within visual line of sight (VLOS) of the drone, one will probably hear it anyway, if one is near. The weak signal does not pass through things like trees, houses, or other objects between the RID transmitter and whatever receivers happen to be around.
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In general, drones are not permitted to fly above 400 feet above ground level recreationally, or 400 feet above a structure or landmass under part 107 rules. The transmission range would be limited unless your RID receiver is within reach of the already distance-limited wireless/Bluetooth signal.
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Hacking/cloaking - creative persons of all types can cook up antenna systems and receivers to pick up the wireless/Bluetooth. Others simply will (and have) found ways to turn off RID as well. Impossible to generalize whether the typical recreational or part 107 pilot would want to go to lengths to go ‘against regulations’ to care if this information is broadcast or not.
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Indirect detection - while transmission between the drone and controller in the 2.4/5GHz bands is typically encrypted, it’s still a RADIO signal and always on when the drone/receiver are powered on. Persons with interest in this have means of detecting those signals, their strength, location, etc. Signal scanners, for example (see Kismet for an open-source war-driving sniffer example)
So, there are scenarios to look at here even if we have ‘an app’ to see a drones in our vicinity. Here are a couple.
Note that a drone flying ‘over your property’ is still in federal (US) airspace and is technically legal - buckshot or similar damage is subject to prosecution (federal) for interfering with aircraft in federally regulated airspace (no such thing as ‘unregulated’ in the US). Enforcement, privacy violations, getting satisfaction, etc. are an entirely different discussion.
Attempting to monitor aerial operations run by government operations (law enforcement, fire, search and rescue and similar) will typically put one within that agency’s area of operations, regardless if it’s an emergency or not, and will likely tend to attract swift and immediate attention of those parties tasked with securing the area of operations. Those parties tend to shoo away even just persons who are curious as to what’s going on.