FPV Frequency

Radio Frequencies for FPV

As soon as you look deeper into FPV flying, you will realize not only there are many brands of equipment you can choose from, there are also a range of different FPV radio frequencies available. Usually people decide on what frequency they want to use before picking a brand/model of FPV system, since some of the brands specialize / only produce equipment for certain frequencies.

Usually these frequencies are available for FPV system equipment.

• 900 Mhz


• 1.2 ghz


• 1.3 ghz


• 2.4 ghz


• 5.8 ghz

Difference in FPV Frequency

Generally, you want to go lower in FPV frequency, because the lower the frequency band, the longer the waveform is produced. The longer the wavelength, the better it can get around or penetrate objects such as hills, buildings and trees (see penetration depth VS frequency), so the longer distance the signal can travel in our flying environment.

Unfortunately, not all frequency bands are legal, and there are restrictions on certain frequencies in some countries. Do find out about what frequencies are legal to use in the country you are planning to fly FPV, before buying the equipment. In this article, I will use the UK as an example.

900 MHz

Brilliant range, great penetration.

This would have been the most obvious choice for FPV, but the UK government start using this frequency band for mobile 3G network in 2009, so it’s no longer legal.

1.2 GHz

This band provides great range and good penetration ability. But again it’s illegal for use in the UK as it’s used by other sources.

1.3 GHz

Similar Good range and good penetration ability to the 1.2 GHz band. People in America use this frequency band for transmitting video/audio if they have a Amateur Television or ATV license from a ground based station. For the UK at the moment it is used for aerial work, so it’s again illegal in the UK.

2.4 Ghz

You can get a good range out of this frequency band, and it has a very good range to power ratio. The 2.4 GHz video equipment is very popular among FPV frequencies, and it’s the most commonly made equipment and generally is the cheaper of all the bands to buy.

However, the penetration ability is not very good compared to the previous frequency bands. Also since it’s the most popular band for many other equipment such as WiFi, Bluetooth, RC transmitter/receiver, you might get serious interference. So usually if you decide to go with this band for FPV, you need to choose a difference frequency for your RC transmitter, and telemetry (if you are using one) other than 2.4GHz.

5.8 GHz

Finally, the 5.8 GHz frequency band is growing in its popularity, and manufacturers are making it cheaper and more affordable. This band is useful because its off the 2.4GHz that most flyer’s will be on so that’s that problem solved. Another good thing is thecircular polarized antenna can be made very small, thanks to the high frequency. These antenna can solve problems on poor reception due to polarization and multi-path. Many FPV pilots have been using this system and it’s been proven practically that this a great frequency band for FPV.

Although it has got a decent range to power ratio, again due to the high frequency it has a very poor penetration property. Therefore flying is restricted within line of sight area mainly. It is most useful for multicopter pilots (quadcopter, tricopter, hexacopter and so on), which doesn’t fly very far away compared to air planes (within 500m to 1 km range?). And the video transmitter can be in close proximity to everything else with no obvious negative effects.

Legal FPV Frequency and Power Level In The UK

Not only are there certain frequencies that are legal for FPV flying but there are also constraints on the video transmission power levels as well. For more detail check out this PDF.

So we know we can only use 2.4Ghz and 5.8 Ghz frequency bands for FPV in the UK, we will have a look at these for their max legal transmission power level.

For 2.4Ghz, the max power is 10mW. For 5.8Ghz the max power allowed is 25mW. (information from here)

Conclusion – What Frequency Should We Use for FPV?

In the case of flying FPV legally in the UK, not fun at all. Most decent FPV equipment are baiscally illegal to run due to the transmission power restrictions. However if we are only talking about frequency, the most popular choice is using 2.4 GHz for Radio control and 5.8 GHz for FPV, for the reason of being legal and the cheapest option.

Some people have also suggested using the 35MHz for radio control, which gives us excellent range and faultless results for control, as the 35 MHz doesn’t affect the video signal at all. And use the 2.4 GHz for FPV, which keeps us all legal and have good video quality.

I have also seen people flying FPV with illegal frequency and transmission power level, A LOT, without getting caught. When you are flying in a remote site, I seriously doubt anyone would notice you are there using a illegal frequency band, unless you annoy someone by affecting their activity. Of course, you should always follow the law, and don’t do anything stupid.

There are also things to consider when choosing frequency for your FPV system due to the fact that harmonic frequencies can cause interference, for example 2.4GHz might interfere with 5.8GHz. But from experience it doesn’t seem to be too much of a problem for me and other people I know, so I won’t talked about this in this article.