In the past, I used antenna gain to decrease transmit power. That option is now gone in Winbox. I tried the antena-gain setting in the CLI, and it’s gone there, too.
What’s the best way to reduce transmit power?
Help appreciated. Thanks!
At least in long-term it still works via CLI.
See http://forum.mikrotik.com/t/antenna-gain-missing-in-6-46-8/145162/1 for alternative options.
I can still change it in Winbox, so what gives?
I tried the antena-gain setting in the CLI, and it’s gone there, too.
What RouterOS version ? I still have it in CLI.
“Antenna gain” is the relative parameter for TX power. (Relative to the math done in de router based on chipset, calibrated power, regulatory limits, and antenna gain entered.)
"All rates fixed " is an absolute setting (where you have to do the math yourselves)
I did not try it (nor do I have measurement tools to measure effects reliably), but @Normis wrote a topic post about setting Tx power: http://forum.mikrotik.com/t/antenna-gain-missing-in-6-46-8/145162/1 … I’ve no reason not to believe in what a MT staffer writes and according to what he wrote, things are plain simple. The only problem remaining is the name of parameter.
Thanks for these replies. From the links to previous posts, I’ll have to reduce power using the ‘all rates fixed’ option, measure signal strength and adjust as needed.
Using all rates fixed I was able to reduce transmit power on a test AP. However, when I provisioned this AP using CAPsMan, the lower power setting was lost - went back to default, higher power. I have 16APs in my church building, all provisioned with CAPsMan, and I need to reduce transmit power in a few. How do I do this??
Thanks again.
In capsman you can limit Tx power under /caps-man channel … even if you currently have something there, you’ll want to create a new one (possibly similar to the existing one), but with tx-power property set
add name=lowpower tx-power=15
and then use that setting in /caps-man configuration as channel=lowpower property … If you only want to reduce power for certain CAPs, you’ll have to prepare separate configuration sets for default CAPs and the low power CAPs, then select specific configuration set in /caps-man provisioning like this:
add action=create-dynamic-enabled master-configuration=lowpowerconfiguration radio-mac=E6:8D:8C:49:EE:4A
add action=create-dynamic-enabled master-configuration=defaultconfiguration
Beware that rules in provisioning section are matched in usual top-to-bottom order, so make sure the default (without radio-mac set) is the last one.
Thank you @mkx. This worked well Thanks also for reminding me about the provisioning rules taking place in order - I’ve made that mistake before.
You all have been very helpful. Maybe you can help me on another question. I’m trying to provision my Audience AP with CAPsMan, and I get the 'no supported channel for the 2nd 5GHZ interface. This is (I think) the QCA9984 chip with 3 chains. I can, however, manually set up and configure and use both 5GHz chips. Any ideas on CAPsMan?
Follow up: I also tried CAPsMan provisioning of this radio using the radio’s MAC address, and putting this provisioning rule first in the list. Same result, unfortunately. “no supported channel”. I tried provisioning with all the 5GHz hardware supported modes, a, a turbo, ac and an. Stil ‘no supported channel’. ac mode has worked well in the past with all my previous radios.
Audience: The 5GHz radio’s are hardware (separation filter?) bound to a subset of the 5 GHz band each, so as not to create interference within the box.
Thanks @bpwl. You’re correct. When I manually configure the first 5 GHz radio, the available frequencies are 5180 - 5240. The second 5 GHz radio shows 5745 - 5825 available. I understand better now, but still don’t know why CAPsMan won’t work. I’ll probably use CAPsMan for the 2.4 GHz and first 5 GHz radio, and manually configure the second 5 GHz radio.
Thank you to all!