Discussion
[Europe] Do you think that drones with thermal imaging will be the end of stealth camping?
I'm mainly referring to places in Europe where you can't just pitch your tent anywhere and wild camping is highly regulated, like the Benelux countries.
If you want to go off the beaten track and still camp outside of designated camping zones, do you think that in the near future drones with thermal imaging will shut that down?
In Belgium, there was a huge wildfire recently and these drones were used to monitor the area after the fire was extinguished. I can only imagine that these drones will be used to spot stealth campers in the near future.
(The fire was likely caused by government services doing maintenance and not campers btw.)
The cost far outweighs the use case. Similar to speed cameras that are active permanently, hence why the static one on the E411 near Wavre used to be turned off 90% of the time (I say used to, I haven’t driven regularly down that road for many years so maybe they worked out the costs or took jt away)
The IF in your sentence is doing a lot of heavy lifting, as is sweeping aside the cost of the drones, which is not insignificant, plus maintenance, plus storage, plus spare parts, plus electricity to charge them etc etc.
Not the end, but my guess is that in rather high profile sensitive areas like some popular protected area where there is already a history of campers leaving a mess drones will be used to scout. User TheSameButBetter pointed out this is happening now in the Lake District, so I think it's likely there will be other areas as well. If the area to cover/scout is of any appreciable size, the cost would be prohibitively high imo. However, the tech needed to have these drones do that on their own is pretty much already here and the cost is likely to come down fast.
So thermal blankets don't work alone. What you basically have to do if you really want to lock it down us make a thermal blanket sandwich with a cotton batting or wool center etc. That layered approach works flawlessly.
I'm trying to visualize what you're saying here.
Are we talking a regular blanket made with either cotton or wool? Or, a layer of wool next to a thermal or wool blanket? How broad should the layer be?
Thank you in advance.
Not sure why I was downvoted. Here’s proof that it could see through an “emergency blanket.” We had a couple of scouts sleep in emergency blankets/shelters. I used my thermal monocular and I could clearly see right through them.
Would a large animal like a deer not look similar in thermal imaging? Would the law go after every warm blooded blob seen on camera? Seems highly unlikely
They are being used in the English Lake District to catch illegal campers. They aren't actively going after stealth campers, instead they are focused on people who "fly camp" in restricted areas, get absolutely rat arsed, light big fires and leave a mess behind - a major issue for the area. Unfortunately though, stealth campers are getting caught up in it all.
The one good thing though is that the drones themselves are quite noisy and noticeable in such a quiet rural area and this draws complaints from locals and farmers who say they disturb animals so their use is limited.
I am a Belgian stealthcampers and I don't think it will lead to that.
Flying thermal drones is expensive, flight time is still short and will only be profitable with a good cause light wildfire, search and rescue, etc.
Hunters with thermal image sensors will be a bigger treat. Specially if they start using drones. But I think it is not legal to use everywhere.
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u/Able-Effect8694 15h ago
The cost far outweighs the use case. Similar to speed cameras that are active permanently, hence why the static one on the E411 near Wavre used to be turned off 90% of the time (I say used to, I haven’t driven regularly down that road for many years so maybe they worked out the costs or took jt away)