When you fly FPV alone, you can pick any video channel you like. The moment you fly with others, one rule matters more than any other: know your channel, and never plug in a battery on a channel someone else is using.
Your drone is a tiny TV station
The video transmitter on your drone broadcasts its camera picture on a radio frequency around 5.8 GHz. Your goggles tune in to that frequency, like a radio tuned to a station. Most analog FPV gear uses Raceband: eight channels, R1 to R8, spaced 37 MHz apart. One channel, one pilot.
analog video
5.8 GHz
What goes wrong
Imagine Karl is racing on R3. Mia, on the bench, plugs a battery into her drone, which is also set to R3. Her transmitter is right next to Karl's goggles, much closer than his drone, so it wins. Suddenly Karl isn't seeing the track any more; he's seeing Mia's workbench, or just static. At 100 km/h, that's a crash.
That's why this is the number one rule. Almost every other mistake in FPV costs you something. This one costs someone else, and they did nothing wrong.
The power-up ritual
At HOBIzone we use an electronic channel reservation screen. Every time, before every battery:
1. Register: go to the screen and book your channel. 2. Wait: if someone else is already registered on your channel, wait your turn. 3. Shout: "Plugging in on R3!" 4. Plug in: at 25 mW. Never more, in practice or in a race. 5. Check: pilots in the air confirm their video is still clean. 6. Fly.
on the screen
Wait your turn
on R3!”
practice or race
“video still clean?”
Enjoy it.
Quiet and fair
How loud you transmit matters as much as where. Pit mode (well under 1 mW) is not a free pass: it protects pilots in the air from a drone on the ground, but it still reaches the pilot next to you, so don't power up at the bench while others fly. In the air, 25 mW is plenty for any track, and at HOBIzone it's the limit, in practice and in races. More power doesn't make your own picture much better; it mostly drowns out everyone else's.
What about DJI? Digital systems like DJI play by different rules. Their signal is much wider than an analog channel, so it covers more of the band, and the goggles transmit too. We don't race with DJI, but if someone brings one to practice, book it on the screen like everyone else and keep a little distance from the analog pilots.
Flying side by side is the best part of this hobby. It only works when everyone can trust the person next to them.
Know your channel before you plug in.
Read
- Oscar Liang: 5.8 GHz FPV channels & frequency chart (analog & digital)
Raceband table, DJI bandwidth, flying digital next to analog. - UAVMODEL: FPV Frequency Management: avoiding video interference at events
IMD, pit mode, power limits. (Note: it lists R8 as 5945 MHz; standard Raceband R8 is 5917 MHz.) - GetFPV: FPV Frequency Reference Chart
printable chart of all 5.8 GHz bands. - ET’s FPV IMD Tools (IMDTabler)
calculate the cleanest channel set for a group.
Watch
Videos are picked from search. We’re still checking them.
For trainers: the 10-minute plan
| Time | Slide | Talking points |
|---|---|---|
| 0:00 | "Has anyone ever suddenly seen someone else's picture in their goggles?" | Most have. That's what this talk is about. |
| 1:00 | Video is radio | Your drone's video transmitter (VTX) broadcasts like a little radio station. Goggles tune to one station. Two stations on one frequency = mess. Walkie-talkie analogy: two people talking on the same channel. |
| 2:30 | Diagram 1: One channel = one pilot | Raceband R1–R8. Each pilot gets one. Spread out, don't sit next to each other. |
| 4:00 | Diagram 2: Two drones, one channel | Tell it as a story. The victim is the one in the air. That's why it's the #1 rule. |
| 5:30 | Diagram 3: Power-up ritual | Register on the screen, wait your turn if someone else is on your channel, shout, plug in at 25 mW, check, fly. Practice it out loud together. |
| 7:00 | Diagram 4: 25 mW, always | Pit mode is not a free pass: it still reaches the pilot next to you, so don't power up while others fly; 25 mW in practice and in races, never more. More power doesn't help you: it just drowns everyone else. |
| 8:30 | What about DJI? | Digital is wider and the goggles transmit too. We don't race DJI; if someone brings it to practice, book it on the screen and keep some distance. |
| 9:30 | Takeaway | "Know your channel before you plug in." |
Demo: two pilots with goggles on, sitting side by side. One quad on R3, powered on the bench. Then power a second quad on R3: the goggle-wearers say out loud what they see. (Props off! Bench only.) Then everyone goes to the screen and registers their channel.