How do I set the output power of the R52Hn cards? I’ve brought up specifications & tutorials that say they can be run at different power levels, but I haven’t been able to figure out what I’m doing to set what I need in an indoor or testing versus outdoor setting.
I know there’s a dB setting in the wireless card settings in Winbox, but I’m not sure what dB setting equates to what power level, and does antenna style / gain make a difference on that setting?
Winbox and/or command line examples are fine - I’m getting much more familiar and comfortable with both.
You will notice that every 3dBm increase equates to a doubling in power (and heat!). A 15dbi antenna will give you a gain in erp (effectrive radiated power) of around 32 times your input power ( 100 mW into 15dBi antenna sees an ERP of approx 3,2Watts), needless to say higher gain antennae are definitely a better way to go, that trying to squeeze more from the card,
Any reason you do not want to run at default Tx Power? You must be careful not to “cook” the card by overdoing it.
I may need to do some long-distance links that could require more power to ensure a good connection; and also while I’m testing (very close quarters) I would like to reduce power to bare minimum as I think the proximity of the units were causing issues at default Tx power.
I appreciate the info on the dBm to mW conversion, that will help me immensely.
As an amateur radio operator (AB8KK), I’m aware of the 3dBm==2x transmit power rule, but I’m still learning the Mikrotik hardware and so I was unsure what values corresponded to actual output on the card.
more power will equal in more noise. what you need is a higher gain antenna instead.
To be “Devil’s advocate” for a moment, if “more power equals more noise” is a universal truth, why does Mikrotik design and build higher-power cards like the R52Hn?
I have high-gain antennas already in the project as I tend to over-engineer projects anyway. I firmly believe in the concept of “it’s better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it” with projects, and if having access to more power means “more noise and a slower but stable connection” instead of no connection at all, I wanted to have that option instead of either a failed project and needing to order different equipment.
I did mention in my post that I felt there might be a need to lower the power as well as raise it - if I can keep a stable connection with lower power, I’ll make use of that as well.
As always, thanks to everyone for all the advice!
Roger “Merch” Merchberger