Eli5- How do consumer drones (DJI, etc) broadcast the camera image to your phone from so far away? How come you can control a drone and view the feed like a mile away but I have trouble getting Wi-Fi reception on the other side of condo
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There are a few very misguided explanations here already.
ELI5 answer: They are allowed to talk to each other under different rules than your laptop talks to your wifi hotspot.
Short answer: Because they are using frequencies with less interference and more relaxed power rules than what WiFi permits TOGETHER with radio protocol designed for long-range use.
Long answer: While there are some drones that indeed will connect via wifi or bluetooth their range and power will be limited by law. Try Mavic Air via wifi link or via remote control – completely different ranges. The difference is that remote control talks to the drone NOT via wifi, but via its own radio protocol in frequency range _outside_ of wifi frequencies (but very close, which is why most people see 2.4GHz and think it is still wifi).
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Question: Why doesn’t WiFi do the same and give same range?
Answer: WiFi is designed to be cooperative among large number of devices active at any time. WiFi devices have strict limits on how loudly they can talk with each other (to be fair to others) and try to squeeze in a lot of data each time they get a chance to have a word (transmission window) so that your netflix 4k stream has enough data meaning that signal is more complex to understand (and degrades quicker). If everyone who uses wifi around you would do the same nothing would work for anyone.
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