newbie PicoStation2 range

[gaffer]

I'm confused about the range of a 100mW Picostation2. The data sheet says it is 150m outdoors, but that seems too low. Perhaps I just don't understand how to read the datasheet.

Assume two Pico2's talking to each other. If I do the Free Space Loss calculation for 150m, that would be -84 dB. Add back 20 dBm for transmit power, and 12 dBi for the two 6 dBi antennas, and you -52 dBm. That seems well above the -90 dBm RX spec.

What am I missing? Am I not supposed to add dBi and dBm like that? Many thanks in advance.

[DrNutbush]

I just got some of these in as well and am also trying to figure out why it states 150 Meters outdoors. The antenna's claim to be 6db for the pico, and 8db for the loco, yet the loco say's 5 kilometers outdoors. The TX Power appears to be the same for both so we are talking 2db's difference.

I'll be testing these in the next day or 2 but would be nice if someone who knows can help us...

[WHT]

150m outdoors would be typical for a laptop perhaps.

[DrNutbush]

That was my thoughts as well WHT, but I feel it's a bit of a strange way for the marketing. We will actually be hitting these things with Powerstations or Nano's from 1-2 kilometers away and using these for the notebook connections, if it works :/

[WHT]

GMTA, huh?