FCC Takes Action Against WISPs That Interfered with FCC Weather Radar

Fri Aug 23 05:28:22 UTC 2019

On 8/22/19 5:09 PM, Bradley Burch wrote:
> Most gear now will hop frequencies automatically if they receive a DFS interference.

"Most" should mean "everything intended for sale in FCC-controlled 
territories" since it's a requirement to use that spectrum for part 15 
purposes at all.  If you don't support DFS, you're not supposed to use 
that spectrum at all, and therefore you shouldn't offer to configure it 
for the user if you support regulatory domain type compliance at all.

I suspect at least some gear gets around that with the whole "intended 
for configuration by qualified individuals" schtick, but that's pretty 
weak IMO.

> If your gear supports this, turn it on.

More like don't turn it off if you're using most stuff and don't defeat 
the regulatory domain functionality, either.  If you're using gear 
intended for the aforementioned "qualified individuals", well, make sure 
you're qualified to configure the thing.

I want to say most of the low-cost wISP targeted gear that I'm aware of 
has never supported the DFS-required spectrum without actually 
implementing DFS.  If you're buying high-$$$ carrier-class gear, I 
should at least hope you know how to configure it properly.

Oddly, I have some general-purpose access points that do, though the 
instructions are clear that they're for indoor use only when using those 
channels.
-- 
Brandon Martin