I have, in the past, wondered how practical it would be to take a highly-directional antenna and a camera mounted on a computer-controlled tripod head and then pan the thing around for a bit and create an image with a heat map overlay showing where the signal is strongest. I was thinking about making a map showing WiFi networks.

If you have some fancy RDF antenna array, which I imagine that military signals intelligence people do, might not even need to do the panning.

[–] Cort@lemmy.world 8 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Add 2 more sensors and you can triangulate. Fly them around on drones and you could search the countryside

[–] Jesus_666@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Even just one additional sensor if they're directional. Even if optical camouflage of broadcast equipment might work in the short term, I don't doubt that Ukraine will find a way around that relatively quickly. The Ukrainians are really good at this and, well, it's broadcast equipment.

[–] CanadaPlus 1 points 1 week ago

You'll need a big dish or phased array to get that kind of directionality, but it's doable.

If you wanted to do radio stations, which are on longer wavelengths, it probably isn't anymore.

[–] waldfee@feddit.org 1 points 1 week ago

This sounds very similar to this project from The Thought Emporium