Yo, Whats legal power in the wifi 2.4Ghz world

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D-Boy

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sup... I have a mofo problem, I've been phoning for the last week at the head office in JHB at ICASA and asked them then legal power output that my Access points may use, and I still haven't got a real answer, so maybe someone in here can tell me, the last call I've been tuned by this dude saying I'm not listening to him, but I think he was p*ssed of because I phoned at 12pm and they take their lunch break more seriously up then their work..

So ffs..... friends... tell me, Why cant I use more then 100mW on my 2.4Ghz AP? :confused:
 
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ld13

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The legal maximum output is 100mW indeed afaik. You cannot use more as that is the law? :p
 
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UnUnOctium

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10 dBm if I recall correctly (10 mW). The reason you can't use more than 20 dBm is because research has been done to show that it's still safe at that level and equipment manufacturers do not want any health & safety lawsuits (looks horrifically bad). Technically you can amp it up to whatever power you want, all you need is a power amplifier and some good hardware.
 
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D-Boy

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@ 10mW, fluk no...

"health & safety lawsuits" joh man, what about cell phone towers, how many watt's do they pump?
 
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UnUnOctium

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D-Boy said:
@ 10mW, fluk no...

"health & safety lawsuits" joh man, what about cell phone towers, how many watt's do they pump?
Click to expand...

Just looked through some 'docs' I have: correction, 100 mW specifically for WLAN equipment, 10 mW for non-specific short range devices (SRDs).

Mobile phone standards have active research into them since providers want to place the least towers possible to cover the largest area possible. WLANs are personal uses devices not meant to cover city suburbs. That's why there's much debate about how safe mobile phone transmissions are since much research is done to determine the highest possible transmission power for the towers while still being safe. No one cares about a WLAN which only needs to cover a 50 m radius and which everyone can set up.
 
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D-Boy

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ya but..... what about WISP. they care about getting more then 50m range
 
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UnUnOctium

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D-Boy said:
ya but..... what about WISP. they care about getting more then 50m range
Click to expand...

That's why they use high-gain, directional antennae. Technically, WISPs aren't supposed to be using wifi, wimax is the right solution for them, but government has stuffed up the legal process entirely.
 
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D-Boy

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UnUnOctium said:
That's why they use high-gain, directional antennae. Technically, WISPs aren't supposed to be using wifi, wimax is the right solution for them, but government has stuffed up the legal process entirely.
Click to expand...

WISP dont only uses directional antennas...

and setting up a wimax infrastructure is going to cost you R500,000.000 and setting up a working cheap azz wifi tower somewhere, is going to cost R2,000.00~R5,000.00.......... kinda big difference


EDIT : and both is going to do the same thing
 
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KillerB

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2.4ghz and 5.8ghz so cards are not legal some of the SR2 range are not legal
 
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D-Boy

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KillerB said:
2.4ghz and 5.8ghz so cards are not legal some of the SR2 range are not legal
Click to expand...

this is all just messed up, only the 5.8Chz are you allowed to use up to 1W I think, but then you need some license, but the 2.4Ghz, not the same story, may only use up to 100mW, and then I asked the swart oomie, that how can I use higher power on the 2.4Ghz he K@ked me out, and said I'm not listening to him, and that its the law, 100mW max only, "because its the lawwwwww" pfff and because it might interfere with other devices
 
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UnUnOctium

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Obelix said:
the power reading is supposed to be taken AFTER the antenna gain and any amps are added in ( EIRP ) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equivalent_isotropically_radiated_power
Click to expand...

Directional antennae are not isotropic, the reading is most likely taken with power at antenna minus the antenna gain (dBi). The the dBi scale is how much of a power gain the antenna has compared to an isotropic antenna (which transmits equal power in all directions).

D-Boy said:
WISP dont only uses directional antennas...

and setting up a wimax infrastructure is going to cost you R500,000.000 and setting up a working cheap azz wifi tower somewhere, is going to cost R2,000.00~R5,000.00.......... kinda big difference


EDIT : and both is going to do the same thing
Click to expand...

Wimax is indeed costly (at the moment) but if government and icasa hadn't fudged it up so badly, it poses a great solution to the WISP 'problem'.
 
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UnUnOctium

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D-Boy said:
this is all just messed up, only the 5.8Chz are you allowed to use up to 1W I think, but then you need some license, but the 2.4Ghz, not the same story, may only use up to 100mW, and then I asked the swart oomie, that how can I use higher power on the 2.4Ghz he K@ked me out, and said I'm not listening to him, and that its the law, 100mW max only, "because its the lawwwwww" pfff and because it might interfere with other devices
Click to expand...

It is the law. Nothing immediately stops you from pumping out 2 MW on 2.4 GHz (besides $$$), if they do find you (which they will), you're looking at some fun jail time.
 
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D-Boy

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UnUnOctium said:
Directional antennae are not isotropic, the reading is most likely taken with power at antenna minus the antenna gain (dBi). The the dBi scale is how much of a power gain the antenna has compared to an isotropic antenna (which transmits equal power in all directions).



Wimax is indeed costly (at the moment) but if government and icasa hadn't fudged it up so badly, it poses a great solution to the WISP 'problem'.
Click to expand...

Yea, Wimax sounds like a waaayyyy better option, but its only that cost :-(
 
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