Effect of Conductive Propellers on VHF UAV-based Antenna Measurements: Experimental Results

Professional Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are generally equipped with carbon fiber propellers. Their conductivity and significant size can potentially increase both noise and systematics of UAV-based antenna measurement systems operating in the VHF band. A set of alternative fiberglass propellers has been manufactured and tested. This paper present measured results on the signal stability achieved with both fiberglass and carbon-fiber propellers at 175 MHz.