https://wiki.mikrotik.com/wiki/Manual:Spectral_scan only tells us “Currently, is NOT supported for Atheros 802.11ac chips (e.g. QCA98xx, IPQ-4018)”, but it would be great if there was an explicit list of which devices support this functionality.
Or a conclusive way to tell if a particular chip is/isn’t a Atheros 802.11ac chip.
E.g. does spectral scanning work on the hap ac lite? Seems like a reasonably priced device I could get just to monitor the wireless environment?
I think for usable spectral scan capability you have to look at the devices from the well known competitor… MikroTik never made a spectral scan quite that good.
I can’t say specifically the hap ac lite doesn’t. But I would have said the rule is there are no “ac” devices does the SA work. While the hAPacLite isn’t a QCA98xx, it is still 802.11ac. Agree the hap ac lite does have a QCA9531, which isn’t in the the “e.g.” above.
We still have a few older RB953 that do this, which use a similar QCA9558 chip, but they only support “n”, but do work for special scans. None of the ARM-based Mikrotik support it.
I think you need a device that BOTH uses older “n” drivers AND not Atheros QCA98xx or IPQ-antything chipset for this to work.
But MT should update the docs to be clear…
That’s actually better advice. I wish they did. It worked well enough but never great.
Good old RB411 with R52n in a box does the job nicely, had one just for scanning needs in the past. And yes, only N radios can do scans, so no AC gear.
Spectral scanning is one of those features that’s just absent on any newer Mikrotik gear for no official reason. So if you need it, don’t buy Mikrotik.
For doing site scans it’s better to use competition with much better scanning resolution, GUI and much more. Even old Rocket M5 from dumpster will do the job…