• HikingVet@lemmy.ca
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    6 months ago

    Optical fibre is fucking fragile as all hell. You aren’t going to see appreciable signal loss with an antenna with much better weight savings not have a spool of cable either on the armoured vehicle (minimal if on the vehicle) or the drone (undesirable). Not to mention the mechanical issues associated with the spooling.

      • borari@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        6 months ago

        The strands are still glass though, and have a much wider maximum bend radius than something like CAT* cable.

        • SmoothIsFast@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          Did you watch the video? He’s wrapping fiber optic cable over a 10mm mandrel with no problems and it’s causing no loss. The video is 10 years old at this point too, we’ve probably progressed further with technology.

      • HikingVet@lemmy.ca
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        6 months ago

        So, you still need the special connectors, still a cable. I mean, if you wanted a smart kite sure, that is an overpriced solution.

        • MxM111@kbin.social
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          6 months ago

          Connectors are not special, they are standard and cheap due to fiber optics used in telecoms in massive amounts.

          • borari@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            6 months ago

            Now I’m imagining a guy on top of a tank in battlefield conditions trying to do an emergency fuse repair on a fucked up pigtail while cleaning the glass with those fancy fiber wet wipes and ranting about how there’s too much dust.