Amplifier Considerations to Avoid Damage to Radios in Point-to-Point Link

Hello, are there any considerations/gotchas to be aware of
when using a bidirectional amplifier in a point-to-point
802.11b link?

At 16 km and with tower-mounted bridges and 24 dBi antennas,
in theory, the link should work. But for some reason, we
aren't getting any signal. There is LOS although I am not
100% sure that there is no incursion into the Fresnel zone.

So I am thinking of adding a Teletronics 1W SmartAmp
(30 dBm constant output, 17 dB typical receive gain)
as shown in the configuration below:


15 dBm 30 54 -70 -46 dBm

Radio------Amp------Ant - - - 16 km - - - Ant------Radio

-44 dBm -61 -85 39 15 dBm

Will this work and not damage the radios? I am thinking of
putting the amp inside the Pelican case together with the
radio on one side. Does it make any significant difference
whether the lightning arrester is between radio and amp,
vs. between amp and antenna, vs. removed altogether
(since the Teletronics has built in lightning protection)?

I am worried that I may be missing something, since I
have heard a few anecdotes about people reporting
mysterious/unexplained damage to their radios when they
put in an amplifier.

For example, there was thread in July 2003 entitled
"Teletronics amp toasted my D-Link 900AP+" .

What is the typical maximum receive power that a radio
can take?

Thanks for any advice/suggestions.