6 ms·
Surely you can put a maximum on whatever you might be accidentally transmitting. Those GPIO pins are 3V, and you are not going to get many amps through that bo
by jlgreco 14y ago
Surely you can put a maximum on whatever you might be accidentally transmitting. Those GPIO pins are 3V, and you are not going to get many amps through that board.
How many "couple of watts" are we talking about? I don't see this being capable of more than single digits.
- jrabone 14y agoDoes it matter? The UK legal interference limit is 50 NANOwatts (prior to the Wireless Telegraphy (Exemption) (Amendment) Regulations 2006 ALL unlicensed FM transmitters were strictly illegal). This is almost certainly capable of exceeding that, perhaps even with just a bent wire antenna (and almost certainly with a tuned antenna). There are good reasons why those limits exist, and infringement can carry penalties up to a £5000 fine.
- jlgreco 14y agoOh, I am certainly not saying it is legal.
- ja27 14y agoLow-power amateur radio (QRP) enthusiasts communicate many miles apart with well under 5 watts.
- jlgreco 14y agoI guess my hangup here is that it seems like a <10W (with a raspberry pi's GPIO and no amp, we are probably talking <1W in reality, but throw on a factor of 10 for safety) RF circuit with an antenna a few cm long seems really easy to make by accident, let alone on purpose. It is illegal sure, and these people shouldn't be doing it intentionally, but I have a hard time seeing it causing damage measurable in actual dollars.
- sliverstorm 14y agoThat's no justification for doing it on purpose.
- jlgreco 14y agoI'm not trying to justify what they are doing, just get a handle on how much damage they could be doing by breaking the rules in this way, not how much damage they could be doing by breaking the rules in general.
- na85 14y agoOn much different frequencies.