I suspect it's all by design. Much like how easy it is to defeat the kill switch on lawn mowers, the seat belt alarm in automobiles, etc. Most manufacturers have the "Use Local Regulatory Domain" check box. Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE has ran outside the legal limits if only for a little bit and usually for valid reasons so for this I'm grateful, but what I take issue with is non-commercial carriers (and "pirate" ISPs) who run the equipment wide open just because they can. Yes, I've come across private individuals who throw up private links outside of FCC limits............. But I'd never pick up the phone and dial that FCC number. Bad Karma. Won't happen. A nice letter to the offending party that hints of being FCC works quite nicely. :)
I also think that parts of the regulatory limits are vague on purpose. Hey, it's just like the Bible! Subject to interpretation. Just hope Pat Robertson isn't your FCC rep. Bob- "It's summer, it's too hot and I'm tired of climbing 300 foot towers in the hot friggin' sun just to come home and have the wife expect me to fold the laundry................" -----Original Message----- From: wireless-boun...@wispa.org [mailto:wireless-boun...@wispa.org] On Behalf Of Fred Goldstein Sent: Thursday, June 24, 2010 12:29 AM To: WISPA General List Subject: Re: [WISPA] Maximum sector power? At 6/24/2010 12:12 AM, Robert West wrote: >Stick with the rules, dude. You'll still get customers and you'll still >make money. > >One FCC visit can ruin your day, Oh, I intend to advise my clients to stick with the rules, and I design networks accordingly. I'm just a little surprised at how easy it seems to break them, even inadvertently. The PtP/PtMP distinction does create interesting ambiguity. But then the FCC is terrible at drawing lines. Their whole approach to rulemaking is to pick out point cases and decide them, and then leave it to everyone to figure out which point case is closest to the problem at hand. I largely work in the CLEC space and the rules for intercarrier compensation are totally whacked-out. Some are from 1984, some from 1996, some from 2001, and there's newer case law all over the place, and none make any sense in the real world. So they are probably viewing PtMP as your basic home 802.11b access point, which they don't want tricked out too far, and PtP as your basic dish-to-dish microwave hop. Anything else is left to interpretation. They are apparently pretty strict about the shared bands in the 5.4 GHz range. At 5.8, it's ISM, which is basically a junque band, like 2.4, so the rules are less strict and I'm guessing there's less enforcement. But that's not a reason to design outside of the rules. >Bob- > > > >-----Original Message----- >From: wireless-boun...@wispa.org [mailto:wireless-boun...@wispa.org] On >Behalf Of Fred R. Goldstein >Sent: Wednesday, June 23, 2010 5:41 PM >To: WISPA General List >Subject: [WISPA] Maximum sector power? > >I'm just a little confused about some of these nice-looking access points. >The UBNT Rocket M5, for instance, can put out +27 dBm. It plugs *right >into* a nice 19dB sector antenna. Okay, the smaller, >120 dB sector is only 16 dB. Now math is not really my thing but I get >a total ERP there of +43 to 46 dBm. > >FCC Rule 15.247 states that the maximum transmitted power output for >digitally-modulated intentional radiators in the 5725-5850 MHz band >("ISM") is 1 watt, and the maximum antenna gain is 6 dBi. Each >additional dB of antanna gain means one less dB of power. So the >maximum ERP is 4 watts (+36). > >Point-to-point is an exception in that specific band; it is allowed >unlimited antenna gain. But "point-to-multipoint systems, >omnidirectional applications, and multiple co-located intentional >radiators transmitting the same information" are under the cap. > >So am I correct in assuming that everybody who uses the Rocket M5, or >any other similar PtMP system for subscriber access, turns the >transmitter power REAL low (~+20 + feedline loss), in order to keep the >ERP below +36? Or are we assuming that since you're technically only >transmitting and receiving to one end user at a time, it's really PtP? > >SkyPilot's legal hack, of course, is to have eight 45 degree sector >antennas and only use one at a time, so it is legally PTP even with >+42 EiRP. And with advanced 11N 4x4 beamforming antennas, something >like that will become relatively easy. But we're not quite there yet. >Thoughts? > > -- > Fred Goldstein k1io fgoldstein "at" ionary.com > ionary Consulting http://www.ionary.com/ > +1 617 795 2701 > > > >----------------------------------------------------------------------- >----- >---- >WISPA Wants You! Join today! >http://signup.wispa.org/ >----------------------------------------------------------------------- >----- >---- > >WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org > >Subscribe/Unsubscribe: >http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless > >Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ > > > >----------------------------------------------------------------------- >--------- >WISPA Wants You! 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