DailyWireless - Linksys Power Booster Unplugged

According to this, the Linksys Amplifier has been pulled from the market because the FCC are concerned it could be used with non-Linksys APs. The problem is the FCC regs that say that a complete system including antenna must be tested end to end to make sure it doesn't break the power rules. I can't help thinking that there's something wrong here. This is an attempt to regulate the market at the supply end when the devices are now a commodity. All it's done is result in a proliferation of odd connectors from the manufacturers while vaguely "illegal" antennas and amps are freely available. it can be hard but all the odd connectors are also freely available making home builds easy as well. The alternative of policing finished rigs that break the rules and cause interference is much more difficult.

The situation in the UK and Europe is much the same but with dramatically lower power output limits. It's even easier to put together a rig that breaks those rules just by buying or building a moderate gain antenna and attaching it to an approved device.

The real story here is that you should always go for a higher gain antenna over an amplifier as the narrower beamwidth is less likely to cause interference, while the receive gain is likely to be much more. So taking the amps off the market is actually doing everyone a favour. [from: JB Wifi]


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[ 18-Jun-03 11:40am ]