High Powered 802.11a/g PCMCIA Card?

[pr0zac0x2a]

I'm looking to buy a high powered (>=200mw) wifi card which supports 802.11a/g and has attachments for an external antenna. I've seen a ton of 802.11b cards that fit this discription but no a/g cards yet. Anyone got a suggestion?

-zac

[Dutch]

I'm looking to buy a high powered (>=200mw) wifi card which supports 802.11a/g and has attachments for an external antenna. I've seen a ton of 802.11b cards that fit this discription but no a/g cards yet. Anyone got a suggestion?

-zac

Which regulatory domain are you in ? The rules differ between FCC and ETSI regulated areas. As for which rules apply to asia and oceania I do not now, so if you are located there, you should contact the RF-spectrum deciding authorities there.

As for FCC and ETSI areas, you most probably won't find a combo 802.11a/g PCcard with an external antenna connector.
The FCC limits the usage of external antennas in the 5 ghz band, so very few, if any, 802.11a capable PCcard's have an external antenna connector.

For FCC and ETSI the bands used by 802.11a are the UNII1, UNII2, and UNII3 bands, which each has 4 non-overlapping channels
The first band is for indoor use with a TX limit of 50/40 mw (FCC/ETSI), and can not use removable antennas. The second band is for both indoor and outdoor use, with a TX limit of 250/200 mw (FCC/ETSI), and can use removable antennas. The third band is for outdoor use only with a TX limit of 1000/800 mw (FCC/ETSI) and may also use removable antennas.

As manufacturers like to be able to offer big numbers in their advertisments, none of them like to limit their cards. Having to sell brandX card with only 4 channels while brandY can use 12 channels doesn't appeal to the marketing people.

Thats why you'll be hardpressed to find a 802.11a capable PCCard which contains an external antenna connector for the 802.11a band, as it would automatically have to be limited to using only the UNII2 band. So most, if not all, 802.11a capable PCCard's for sale today only TX with 50 mw (or 40 mw if in the ETSI reg. domain), and do not contain an useraccessible external antenna connector that would work on the 802.11a band.

The combo 802.11a/g cards would normally have a different TX output on 802.11g, as the rules governing the 2.54 Ghz frequencies are different. Those rules for the respective regulatory domains, I'll leave up to you to find as an exercise in google usage.

Dutch

[pr0zac0x2a]

Thanks Dutch. Ridiculously informative and depressing. Guess I'll just go for a 802.11b card then.

-zac

[converge]

I've wondered if the combo card has two physically unqiue transmitters, or if the amount of power used is specified in firmware based on the band transmitted.

[Thorn]

I've wondered if the combo card has two physically unqiue transmitters, or if the amount of power used is specified in firmware based on the band transmitted.

Every b/g/a combo card I've looked at (or seen photos of the interior) has two transmitters: One for b/g and one for a.

[[Syntax]]

As far as pcmcia cards I think I saw a 300 somewhere.. but I saw internal minipci cards that were 400mw.. aside from that a good antenna on a 200mw card is going to break FCC limitations.. not that anyone here probably cares.

[Roy_M]

this card http://store.microcom.us/src.html

is an a/g card 300mw in the 2.4Ghz region and 100mw in the 5.8Ghz region.

It was originally brought to my attention in this thread http://www.netstumbler.org/showthread.php?t=17416 but i dont think there is an abundance of information on this card yet. It's expensive too.

Cheers

[converge]

hmm... FCC compliance is denoted with '200mW version' ...

[Dutch]

hmm... FCC compliance is denoted with '200mW version' ...

I did a search on the gullfoss2 fcc server for all products with grantee code SRX. No papers on that card yet, so I don't think they'll get it out for sale in october. I'm guessing that they probably forgot to take the channel limitation for external antenna's into consideration, and that might be why the certification hasn't taken place yet.
Also I think the 200 mw version is for ETSI domains, though they have a problem there as well, as it's limited to 100 mw for the b/g frequencies here.

Dutch

[MalevolenT]

http://www.demarctech.com/products/r...g-cardbus.html

Edit: I posted the link to this card, only to discover it had already been posted earlier. Ooops. One point I'd like to make, I doubt any signal under 1 Watt would really draw any attention. However, I'd also like to add that this link does seem to contain additional data concerning the various output strengths and power comsumption of the card.

[Cowthief]

Offshore "Export" cards.

Hello.

You can buy external adaptors that will do 802.11a and b that will do 1 watt.
The units are not PCMCIA, as both heat and power requirements are an issue.
The other is that none of the things will meet FCC or IC rules.
This is in the area of "Export", just like the so called export ham rigs, snap a wire and you have a super CB.
The same people who carry the super CBs and ultra long range cordless phones sell this type of thing.
Keep in mind, this stuff is in the microwave energy range, so be careful where the power goes.