Hello all:
I've been using Ubiquiti devices for non-ham purposes for a while. I am trying to start a little ham network in our town, and have access to a city water tower for a "repeater" location. One of the WISPs in our area has been upgrading their customers with Nanostation M5's (going to AC5's I guess), and so I was interested in repurposing those. However, Ubnt sells "US" and "Rest of World" versions of the hardware, and I've been told that the US versions are locked and won't transmit on the ham-only portions of the band.
Is this true, or does the AREDN firmware get around that? I know you used to be able to select a "test mode" country and thus get access to those frequencies, but the US hardware was supposed to prevent that. That said, Ubnt doesn't have separate US and world firmware, so it appears there's something in the hardware itself that makes it US-only.
So, can CURRENT model/fw Nanostation M5's work on the HAM-only channels with AREDN firmware?
Thanks!
K7LL
I've been using Ubiquiti devices for non-ham purposes for a while. I am trying to start a little ham network in our town, and have access to a city water tower for a "repeater" location. One of the WISPs in our area has been upgrading their customers with Nanostation M5's (going to AC5's I guess), and so I was interested in repurposing those. However, Ubnt sells "US" and "Rest of World" versions of the hardware, and I've been told that the US versions are locked and won't transmit on the ham-only portions of the band.
Is this true, or does the AREDN firmware get around that? I know you used to be able to select a "test mode" country and thus get access to those frequencies, but the US hardware was supposed to prevent that. That said, Ubnt doesn't have separate US and world firmware, so it appears there's something in the hardware itself that makes it US-only.
So, can CURRENT model/fw Nanostation M5's work on the HAM-only channels with AREDN firmware?
Thanks!
K7LL
"So, can CURRENT model/fw Nanostation M5's work on the HAM-only channels with AREDN firmware?"
If they are in the 'supported platform matrix', yes.
I have Ubiquiti, Mikrotik, and GL-iNet devices running AREDN firmware and using ham radio frequencies.
Of my Mikrotik devices...some are US versions and some are INTL versions.
Ensure that the device(s) match the 'supported platform matrix'.
Click the 'Home' tab at the top of this page, hover your mouse over the '2'.
Believe what you are told there.
;-)
I hope this helps.
Chuck
Joe