cAP-AC (US Model) UNII-3 5745-5825MHz not available? Bug?

RouterOS Wireless Networking
1

Although the US models of the cAP-AC “RBcAPGi-5acD2nD” are stated on the product page “cAP ac-US (USA) is factory locked for 2412-2462MHz, 5170-5250MHz and 5725-5835MHz frequencies. This lock can not be removed.”

These devices force country profile “unitedstates3” which refuses any other 5Ghz frequency than 5180.

Was I lied to in the product details, am I doing something wrong, or is this a bug?

Based on my research anything between 5745-5825MHz (channels “149” through “165”) is wide open for use. DFS is not required for this block.

2

I did some investigation.

[admin@cAP-AC-1] /interface wireless info> country-info
country: united states3
  ranges: 2402-2472/b,g,gn20,gn40(30dBm)
          5170-5250/a,an20,an40,ac20,ac40,ac80,ac160,ac80+80(30dBm)/indoor
          5735-5835/a,an20,an40,ac20,ac40,ac80,ac160,ac80+80(30dBm)/outdoor

Apparently the U-NII-3 frequency block is locked to “outdoor” installation… there still remains a few things that seem very wrong about this.

  • since when is the cAP-AC rated for outdoor install???
  • I cannot find any evidence that UNII-3 is or ever was intended for only outdoor usage. (References: here and page 47 of FCC 13-22 document here, clearly stating UNII-3 as “Indoor/Outdoor” usage.)

Therefore, I propose this “outdoor” lock is a bug and needs to be fixed.

Bonus point of interest: from the chart referenced on page 47 of the FCC 13-22 document above, U-NII-3 is not limited to 30dBm like what shows in Mikrotik’s US3 country profile above, but 36 dBm (and 53dBm for outdoor PTP). Please also check into this.

3

It was explained to me that I was likely mistaking these values so I think this “bonus point” can be ignored.

Still hoping for some sort of official comment on the actual issue tho. Should I send this into Mikrotik support? I don’t see a bug reporting thread here.