On Mon, Jul 07, 2003 at 02:39:51PM -0400, Ty Sarna wrote:
> In article <20030707105937.L629@snowdrop.l8s.co.uk> you write:
> > US: 1000mW EIRP
> 
> Some US Amateur radio operators have noted that some 802.11 channels
> fall within ham allocations.  This would theoretically allow hams to use
> up to 100W (!) as long as the other restrictions were followed (no WEP,
> IPSEC, ssh, etc, and you'd have to put your callsign in the MAC address
> or somesuch). 

Being an amateur radio operator myself, I have thought of trying to do
something with 2.4 GHz but the total lack of security and need for
station identification make it impractical. If I remember correctly, it
is the first five or six channels of the 802.11b channels (there are 11
in the US) that overlap the amateur allocation. That would mean that to
use 802.11b as an amateur radio operator you could only use channels one
through three because of channel overlap.

> Now that might be bad for laptop battery life, but hey, it would keep
> you warm! ;-)

In fixed-point wireless network type configuration (like wireless
internet service providers) you can use a significant amount of power if
the link is point-to-point. Technically any client to a wireless wide
area network is point-to-point. The access point on the top of the hill
is point-to-multipoint and is limited to 4 W EIRP. There is a setup in
my town where someone has their client putting out about 120 W EIRP. You
definately do not want to stand in front of that grid antenna. This is
legal according to the FCC. I guess they figure that point-to-point
reduces the risk of high-power microwave transmissions. Anyway, I guess
I have veered a bit off the topic. ;-)

Bryan