this post was submitted on 17 Apr 2025
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At a range of 1km…
That‘s useful not just for drones. I wonder if this works against helicopters, too.
Seriously this! People don't understand that even hobby drones at a certain price point have robust rf shielding.
More like: That could be useful, just not for (perhaps many) drones.
1km isn't that far - the drones that were used for surveillance of Minneapolis protests in 2020 were around 6km up.
If they needed to get close for some reason, would a 1km deterrent be countered enough by approaching from directly above and using gravity for the last km?
The drones used in Ukraine are basically just commercial drones with grenades strapped to them. And a 1 km distance they're unlikely to be able to damage a target even if they detonated.
It sounds like it's a directed microwave cooker. Works on people too, just not ones behind good cover.
Edit: ah, high frequency, my bad, it's a gamma gun. Same principles apply I think, give or take the cover.
They are definitely not blasting gamma rays to bring down drones lol. "radio" is a specific range of frequencies so "high frequency radio" is just frequencies at the higher end of that specific range.
Gamma rays are insanely dangerous. I'm too lazy to do calculations/research to back this up but I suspect that gamma rays intense enough to reliably drop a drone would also give cancer/radiation poisoning to anyone remotely downrange (and also the operators). Furthermore, I don't think we have a way to produce gamma rays in any high intensity in the lab. matter-antimatter annihilation and fusion bombs are the only way I know of for humans to produce gamma rays. The former can only be done at atomic scale in the lab and the latter is, well, I guess that also destroys drones (and everything else within 100km)
High frequency radio is still below the visible part of the spectrum, gamma is waaay above it.
Tech Ingredients YT channel made a diy microwave directed energy device to disrupt consumer drones.