I have heard two anecdotes so far where inserting a bidirectional
amplifier between the radio and antenna on one side of a wireless
link /seems/ to have destroyed the radio.
I haven't seen any plausible/quantitative explanation yet of how
this could happen.
I am wondering whether the allegations about 2.4 GHz amplifiers
damaging 2.4 GHz radios are a "Sudden Radio Damage Syndrome", somewhat
like the "Sudden Acceleration Syndrome" blamed on Audi in the past,
where as I understand it, after much publicity and millions of dollars of
lawyer's fees and junk science and car recall, it eventually
transpired that nothing was wrong with the Audi car; it was the
drivers who were pressing on the gas pedal instead of the brake pedal.
Below is one of the stories. This is from the thread from July 2003
entitled "Teletronics amp toasted my D-Link 900AP+". Unfortunately,
there was no conclusion in this thread as to what the problem really
was.
> From: R. Ling ((E-Mail Removed))
> Subject: Teletronics amp toasted my D-Link 900AP+
> Newsgroups: alt.internet.wireless
> Date: 2003-07-12 18:04:52 PST
Actually, it toasted two of them.
I needed a little bit of a signal boost to get from my access point (a
DWL-900AP+) to the client location (DWL-650+ PC Card in a laptop)
located beyond a thick belt of trees. The teletronics 1 watt SmartAmp
amp I bought says it is designed for DSSS applications, and is
bi-directional - boosts tx signal to +30dBm and amplifies rx signal by
up to 15dB. I couldn't mess with the client location, so this seemed
like a good solution.
I inserted the amp in line between the AP and antenna, and all seemed
fine. When I went to test the setup 30 minutes later, it didn't work
at all. Upon examination, the 900AP+ was putting out *zero* signal at
the antenna port. (I tested this with a spectrum analyzer). OK, I
thought - the 900AP+ is brand new - maybe it was just faulty. So I
got another one and plugged it in. Watched it closely this time, and
noticed the link quality at the client site quickly degrading. I
pulled the plug on the amp after about 10 minutes of this. Put the
second 900AP+ on the analyzer and what do I find but that it is now
broadcasting 25dBm lower than it was before.
Seems like my amp is burning out my D-Link access points. Has anyone
else run into a similar problem? Can anyone give an explanation as to
why this may be happening? Any suggestions would be welcome, 'cause
I'm scratching my head at this point. Obviously, I don't want to try
hooking this thing up to anything else (read - different brand of AP)
until I can figure this out.
Cheers,
Rik.
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