One of my curiosities from 2024 has been drones. It wasn’t until the disaster in WNC drones evolved from a novel technology to a potent tool in my mind. Sandwiched in the context of their usage in Ukraine, it’s really dawned on me the “game-changer” drones are to our way of life now.

Bringing my own perspective to the topic, I am naturally drawn to the security implications of these devices. Opportunistic people with flexible moral fiber on a budget can do some pretty interesting work with these avian robots. How malicious people can use drones to their own ends is beyond the scope of what I’m covering today.

My approach to the drone conundrum starts with the ever reliable OODA loop: Observe, Orient, Decide, Act. Drone operators nestle themselves supremely in the Observation part of the loop: They can see what we at the terrestrial level can’t. We can’t see microwaves, so any drone is going to have the advantage in observation.

Unless you can see microwaves.

This is my mindset when approaching why and how I am prototyping this detector.

Drone image upstream from where a landslide engulfed a house.