EVERY FRIDAY AFTERNOON and afternoons before haggim, if a community has an eruv, someone has to check that the wire demarking the eruv is in place and not broken.
It’s a time consuming pain in the neck for the people who assure the eruv is still up and not just some wires dangling from a pole.
Yes, I know, some eruvs take advantage of natural borders or permanent man-made walls, but for most communities, at least part of the eruv consists of wire strung from utility poles.
THE “PAIN IN THE NECK” eruv check may soon be a thing of the past, at least for “modern” observant Jews.
An article in USA Today titled Utilities' drone plans cleared for takeoff tells how the feds are making rules authorizing use of drones for commercial purposes.
Drone prices, as all things “technology,” are falling, A search of the Web will confirm that many drones cost less than US$500, well within most congregations’ budgets.
One drone that would be suitable for checking an eruv is the Hubsan X4 Brushless FPV Quad. Unfortunately, as this is keyed, the drone is listed for US$300 on Amazon.
What’s so interesting about Hubson? Several things that should be important to the eruv manager. The “basic” specs:
- Camera: 1080 pixel HD
- Time in air: 20 minutes
- Video: Live
- Charge time: 35 minutes
The handicap is that the controller must be within 1000 feet of the drone. The blurb does not mention what impact tall buildings and inclement weather (e.g., rain, snow) have on the controller’s range.
Another contender, the Parrot Bebop Quadcopter Drone with Sky Controller Bundle (from US$290) apparently has a controller range of about a mile and includes a GPS homing feature that may - or may not – mean that the person flying the device could launch it from Point A and have it return to Point A without having to follow it around the eruv. The drawback to this unit is its air time – a brief 10 minutes on a 90 minute charge. If the eruv is small, not a problem, but if the eruv is very large . . .
Check with the techies in the congregation and ask them to investigate the drone option. It may not be viable for one congregation but it could be just the thing for another.If multiple congregations reside within a common eruv, the cost of the drone could be shared.
