Ron Joffe wrote: > Would hooking up a Yaggi antenna directly to a commercial 802.11 broadband > bridge without amplification violate any FCC Rules?
It really depends on how much power bridge puts out. FCC Rules section 15.249 sets out how much power you can run.
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/get-cfr.cgi?TITLE=47&PART=15&SECTION=249&YEAR=2000&TYPE=TEXT
802.11[a|b] is limited to a field strength of 50 millivolts/meter measured at 3 meters. (See http://www.microindustrie.com/fcc/trans.htm for how to calculate this.) That's not a lot.
In addition, the actual act of hooking up an external antenna may run counter to FCC rule 15.203.
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/get-cfr.cgi?TITLE=47&PART=15&SECTION=203&YEAR=2000&TYPE=TEXT
I'll quote here:
An intentional radiator shall be designed to ensure that no antenna other than that furnished by the responsible party shall be used with the device. The use of a permanently attached antenna or of an antenna that uses a unique coupling to the intentional radiator shall be considered sufficient to comply with the provisions of this section. The manufacturer may design the unit so that a broken antenna can be replaced by the user, but the use of a standard antenna jack or electrical connector is prohibited.
Note that there are some exceptions, but there is not a blanket exception for the wireless network frequencies. There is an exception for an "intentional radiator" that must be "professionally installed", which might cover something like this, but it goes on to say:
However, the installer shall be responsible for ensuring that the proper antenna is employed so that the limits in this part are not exceeded.
So, you really need to sit down and look at a) how much power the bridge puts out and b) how much gain the antenna gives you and then calculate the measurements.
Note, btw, that I've heard that point-to-point links are allowed higher field strength measurements, but I can't seem to find where that is mentioned in Part 15 of the FCC rules. If anyone else can find that, I'd be interested in seeing it. Part 15 of the FCC rules can be found here:
http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_00/47cfr15_00.html
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