Jim Aspinwall wrote: > The POINT is that it is ILLEGAL for users to use uncertified systems. SO - > if you attach a homebrew or 3rd party antenna with some unknown bit of coax > to an Orinoco card or a LinkSys WAP11 for instance - that is NOT a > certified system and you ARE breaking the law. Just as if you ran 1 watt > into a + 24 dB antenna. Plain and simple.
Sorry, but plain and simple, this is completely and totally incorrect. Go read the rules again and again until you understand. If you don't understand, then play it safe all you want, but don't push your false information on others unless you can prove it as fact. And no, I don't mean by simply copying the rules, but show me one "documented" (not just rumor or heresay) instance where someone who installed an external antenna on a WAP11 was ever fined by the FCC. Oh, make sure it didn't include an amp, because Radio + Amp + Antenna (ie, all three, not just radio + antenna), must be certified as a system. If you can find the details on any 802.11(b) radio + amp + antenna issues where someone had been fined or required to change their setup, I'd like to see a complete detail. I've yet to hear anything other than heresay or rumor of someone stating that they had someone at the FCC shut them down even though they were within the EIRP rules. Of the hundreds and thousands of units out there with alternate antennas installed, there have been very very few documented instances of the FCC cracking down for such a thing. By very very few, I mean something in the range of 1 in every 100,000 WLAN radios on the market (or less than 1 in 100,000). In any instance of a complaint, it appears that anyone who has had a complaint filed against them, typically had other issues that pushed them out of the market all together (ie, they went bankrupt, or they changed technologies, or they fixed the problems because they found that they were only interferring with themselves while intentionally interferring with their neighbors at the same time). I've searched high and low, looking for some kind of documented instance as documented by the FCC (not just some random reporter looking for a story and who fails to do the proper research to find the real reason that things were shut down). Swapping antennas, is no more illegal than installing a high performance Z rated tire on your new Ford Taurus that came with a lower end (non-Z rated) stock Goodyear tire. If I want to install a 10dBi directional antenna rather than the stock 5dBi omni directional antenna, where my 10dBi antenna has a -30dB F/B ratio and -20dB sidelobes, I should have the right to do so, because the quality of the signal will be better and the noise xmitted will be lower in nearly all directions and out of band noise will also be lower with a properly tuned antenna (ie, one designed for 2.4 to 2.5Ghz, vs one generally designed for 2.1 to 2.7Ghz as many on the market are already designed for). So long as you follow the rules and stay under the EIRP limits, there should be little or no reason for anyone to complain, especially the FCC or any legal governing entity. Those who complain are likely using the 5dBi stock omni antenna that is picking up noise from up to 5+ miles away (we can use an off the shelf radio with 5dBi stock antenna to get 5 miles, so we know that noise levels can be picked up from much much further than that) and should probably consider putting a little thought into their network design in order to not only limit how much they are affected by the noise, but how much their neighbors are affected by their noise as well (including the 2.4Ghz cordless phone that gets fuzzy when some neighbor is using their wireless network to transfer files between rooms, 5 doors down from the user who is using the phone). Its not illegal for anyone to build and sell antennas. That would go against Free Enterprise. Our founding fathers would be rolling in their graves. It may however, be illegal for radio manufacturers to market and sell radios that are not certified with at least one antenna, due to the fact that without one antenna, they cannot be tested to comply with FCC type certifications (ie, a radio system without an antenna, is not a system at all). There are specific rules which outline what is required to be "type certified" and those rules are typically defined as "digital devices" or devices that have multiple electronic components which makeup a single digital device (the rules have a much better definition of digital devices, and that definition can be found in the Part 15 Rules). An antenna in general does not fall under those rules. An amplifier does, as does an amplified antenna, because part 15.203 specifically states that Amp AND Antenna must be certified as a system, it does not say Amp OR Antenna. That section, as I read it, is specifically meant for the utilization of amplified systems and does not apply to normally certified radio + antenna combinations. There are also allowances for those who are building less than 5 units for personal use. Maybe its time people read the rules again, for the first time. -- general wireless list, a bawug thing <http://www.bawug.org/> [un]subscribe: http://lists.bawug.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless
