[SOLVED] What is the maximum output power for a CPE in Australia

[rcbuilder2023]

Hi,
What is the maximum output power I can use on the TP-LINK CPE210 in Australia.
(EDIT) Can it harm you if you have the output power at full and are standing in front of it
Thanks

 

[berenod]

No idea on the regulations in Australia regarding transmitting power, but during set-up such devices will always ask for the country you are using it in, and by doing so it will normally only allow settings which are legal in that country.

This is mainly done because not all regular wifi channels are open to use in all countries, so channels are getting blocked, for example channel 12 to 14 on the 2.4 Ghz band in the USA where they are not allowed to be used.

Regarding power output, that one will also be limited as per the law in your country.

It's anyway not expressed in mW, but in EIRP, effective radiated power, which takes into account the gain of your antenna. With a high gain antenna you will reach the maximum EIRP at a lower mW level!

And no, those mW wifi transmiiters aren't going to microwave you when you're standing in front of them, would need power a few hundred times higher!

By the way it is pretty much how they discovered you could use microwaves to heat stuff, when a chocolate bar in the pocket of a radar engineer melted when he was standing in the beam! First microwave oven was actually called a "radarange" as patented by Raytheon...


----Edit----
After a bit of research, if following link is current, it seems that in Australia on channel 1 to 9 you are allowed a much higher transmitting power then on the higher channels.
http://www.benelec.com.au/forms/EIRP%20System%20Calculator%20for%20Basic%20Ant%20Inst.htm
Might be usefull to play around with that when testing.
On the higher channels the built in 0.5 watt transmitter would have to be seriuously held back to stay legal, on the lower 9 channels you can actually go full power.

 

[rcbuilder2023]

No idea on the regulations in Australia regarding transmitting power, but during set-up such devices will always ask for the country you are using it in, and by doing so it will normally only allow settings which are legal in that country.

This is mainly done because not all regular wifi channels are open to use in all countries, so channels are getting blocked, for example channel 12 to 14 on the 2.4 Ghz band in the USA where they are not allowed to be used.

Regarding power output, that one will also be limited as per the law in your country.

It's anyway not expressed in mW, but in EIRP, effective radiated power, which takes into account the gain of your antenna. With a high gain antenna you will reach the maximum EIRP at a lower mW level!

And no, those mW wifi transmiiters aren't going to microwave you when you're standing in front of them, would need power a few hundred times higher!

By the way it is pretty much how they discovered you could use microwaves to heat stuff, when a chocolate bar in the pocket of a radar engineer melted when he was standing in the beam! First microwave oven was actually called a "radarange" as patented by Raytheon...


----Edit----
After a bit of research, if following link is current, it seems that in Australia on channel 1 to 9 you are allowed a much higher transmitting power then on the higher channels.
http://www.benelec.com.au/forms/EIRP%20System%20Calculator%20for%20Basic%20Ant%20Inst.htm
Might be usefull to play around with that when testing.
On the higher channels the built in 0.5 watt transmitter would have to be seriuously held back to stay legal, on the lower 9 channels you can actually go full power.

Hi,
Thanks for all your help, I will keep this in mind when experimenting with it.
Thanks

 

[bill001g]

In general you can no longer buy equipment in most countries that will exceed the legal limits. The FCC cracked down on this for devices being shipped into the USA where you could set the country codes and violate the laws by using things like russia that has much less restriction.

They now generally make different models for different countries so you would have to import them yourself to get illegal variants. They sell all kinds of illegal stuff that you can get direct shipped from china.

In any case with the help of the link in the above post and a look at the specs on tplink you are likely ok to set it to full power.

The device only puts out 1/2 watt and you can transmit at 4 watts on channel 1-9. It appears it is far below the legal maximum. Then again if the laws are like the USA the 4 watts is only in point to point applications it is 1 watt in other configuration but that is still 2 times the power allowed.

I suspect Australia is like most other countries as long as nobody complains nothing will be done even if you are exceeding legal power levels. Since these device put out a narrow beam it is highly unlikely you cause interference. Besides it would only be other common people you would be affecting and the government seldom cares about complains from the little guy. If you went out and bought equipment that operates on the frequencies the cell phone company uses that you can be fairly sure they will hunt you down if you are causing interference.