Use of XR9 in Australia

[sadara]

Hi all,
Is there a firmware available that allows the XR9 to be legally used in Australia?
Australia only allows 915 - 928 MHz.
If not, how difficult would it be to have one made up?

[UBNT-Mike.Ford]

Hello,

I do apologize as I do not know a firmware capable of this.

Thanks,

Mike

[brett.wright]

Hi,

You can use channel 3 (which maps to 922MHz on the XR9) and a channel bandwidth of 5MHz or 10MHz in Aus.
The trick is being able to configure this frequency AND bandwidth.
I have been fiddling with madwifi and open hal to get just such a functionality working (but with SR9).
In short I've found that it can be done but not without some changes to madwifi.

Brett

[samcamfilms]

I would assume this is the same in New Zealand?

Sam

[brett.wright]

No, NZ frequency band is only half as wide as AUS.
About 922-928MHz I think.
Therefore even with 5MHz channel centred at 922MHz this is not allowed in NZ.

Brett

[raytaylor]

I rang up RSM and asked about how to get a licence to use the 700mhz version in NZ and they said no way - its all UHF TV and they wont be looking at opening it up untill everything is switched over to digital tv.

I dont think the 900mhz will ever be opened up as long as Telecom and Vodafone have their way.

[adam-trd]

Brett,

can you e-mail me at adam1984@gmail.com

i am setting up some XR9's in Brisbane and wouldnt mind having a chat

cheers,

[masked]

note that the max eirp is 1W @ the 900mhz ism band in .au.

[malk315]

Hi Brett-

Can you describe what changes you made to madwifi open hal (trunk from svn I'm assuming) to allow setting channel bandwidths for your SR-9?

I'd like to do the same but for the XR-9.

Thanks for any advice.

[rabbit_user]

Hi all,
Is there a firmware available that allows the XR9 to be legally used in Australia?
Australia only allows 915 - 928 MHz.
If not, how difficult would it be to have one made up?

Hi Sadara,

Have a look at Wiligear boards and their firmware. The firmware is based on Madwifi and has an easy to use web skin(gui). We use them for the XR3 and XR9's until Ubiquiti releases the Bullet9m for 900mhz or Bullet3m for 3.65ghz. Custom power output and the ability to manually change the center frequency and bandwidth.

Here's a couple of links:

http://www.wiligear.com/?q=products/cpu-boards/wbd-111

http://www.wiligear.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

http://www.wiligear.com/wiki/index.php/WILI-S_5.26_Reference_Manual#Wireless_Radio

I maybe wrong but to operate down to 915mhz you'll have to modify the existing channel's frequency with channattr keys. Here's an example we use to get the XR3's center frequency legal here in the U.S. The XR3 uses 5.8ghz downconverted to 3.65ghz. The XR9 uses 2.4ghz downconverted to 900mhz if I'm not mistaken so you'll have to replace the 5.8ghz channels with the corresponding 2.4ghz channel for the 900mhz frequencies wanted.

For example you have channels with frequencies (US country code):
...
5.765 GHz (Channel 153)
5.785 GHz (Channel 157)
5.8 GHz (Channel 160)
5.805 GHz (Channel 161)
5.825 GHz (Channel 165)

And want to have
5.770 GHz (Channel 153)
5.790 GHz (Channel 157)
5.810 GHz (Channel 160)
5.830 GHz (Channel 161)
5.850 GHz (Channel 165)

Then need to add such configuration via expert mode:
radio.1.chanattr.1.bw=full
radio.1.chanattr.1.channel=153
radio.1.chanattr.1.freq=5770
radio.1.chanattr.1.status=enabled

radio.1.chanattr.2.bw=full
radio.1.chanattr.2.channel=157
radio.1.chanattr.2.freq=5790
radio.1.chanattr.2.status=enabled

radio.1.chanattr.3.bw=full
radio.1.chanattr.3.channel=160
radio.1.chanattr.3.freq=5810
radio.1.chanattr.3.status=enabled

radio.1.chanattr.4.bw=full
radio.1.chanattr.4.channel=161
radio.1.chanattr.4.freq=5830
radio.1.chanattr.4.status=enabled

radio.1.chanattr.5.bw=full
radio.1.chanattr.5.channel=165
radio.1.chanattr.5.freq=5850
radio.1.chanattr.5.status=enabled

IMPORTANT: you cannot choose channel numbers randomly, use only existing channel number. It differs on each country code. Also if want to connect two radios, both radios must have same chanattr configuration. Otherwise the radios will not link.
Aslo if you try to use the skin for radio configuration it will rewrite chanattr settings and after save the custom frequencies will be lost.

Hope this helps!

Ubiquiti Mods - please forgive refering another company's products.

[masked]

here is a conversion chart.

http://www.wiligear.com/wiki/index.php/Non-Standard_radio_frequency_mappings_(SR9/XR9/GZ-901/etc)

mikrotik routerboards also work for the host device and if you are not aware, come with a linux based OS called routerOS.

also, the noise floor is typically high in .au @ 900mhz due to the fact that the ISM band is jammed in-between GSM transmissions.