RF legals - was - Re[4]: [MLB-WIRELESS] Press Release

[Tony Langdon]

> After talking to Jim Karamalakis from the ACA - who mainly 
> deals with the RF
> side of the ACA - especially with class licences, home brew 
> antennas are
> fine, galaxy antennas are fine, as long as you still stay 
> withing the legal
> limit of 4W EIRP.

I was wondering about the status of homebrew antennas.  Best I can do is
read into things using other class licenced systems as examples of
precedents.

If the device has no external antenna connector, I suspect adding one would
be illegal, as it involves modifying the device itself (e.g. walkie talkies,
cordless phones).  In these cases, the antenna design is often integral to
the "low interference potential" status of the device.

However, there are certainly cases where a class licenced device has an
external antenna connector, and where home brewed antennas are allowed.  The
classic example here is CB radio.  

Since many of the network cards have an external antenna connector, I
suspect the homebrew antennas are fine, however the usual disclaimer applies
- IANAL. :-)

> The topic has been raised before regarding if two devices 
> were used on the
> same antenna - how this would affect the 4W EIRP limit. Jim 
> told me that the
> 4W EIRP is per *device* - not the total from the antenna. He 
> gave me an
> example of commercial radios on the Rialto - where there may 
> be one antenna
> servicing 50 radios - each radio is licenced for, say, 50W - 
> but the antenna
> may be putting out, say 500W at one time - he told me this is the same
> scenario with having 2 devices on one antenna.

I'd agree with this.
> 
> He did also mention that we would have to check the RF exposure laws
> regarding this - as say we stick 10 into one antenna, then 
> the total antenna
> output power may be subject to other laws...

Especially after later on this year, when the new EMR exposure laws come
into effect (between July and October).

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