I’m unfamiliar with the LoRa radios that are inside the RS2+.
I am familiar with other base-to-rover communications using UHF where there’s enough energy from the transmitter to damage the radio if the external UHF antenna isn’t first connected.
While I’m guessing that this concern is completely unwarranted, and that the power of the LoRa radio is obviously considerably less, I’m still wanting to err on the side of caution and ask:
Is it possible to damage the RS2+ LoRa Radio if the external antenna isn’t first connected?
For example, on the above referenced webpage, we’re told to set the output power at 20 dBm. But there is no mention about what, if any, other choices there are for power settings. None of the screenshots in that article, nor in the PDF, cover this subject.
I can imagine that the power choices that are available could be greater than 20 dBm, and I just would like to know that choosing any one of them without having external antenna first connected will be safe.
Thanks Kirill! Like I stated earlier, after you said it was safe to use LoRa without the antenna, I stopped parsing any deeper.
It’s a good example to highlight that there are really multiple receivers that have been so neatly incorporated into a single, discrete package with so many different signals being received!
What hasn’t been given, up to this point, was the backstory behind my starting the thread in the first place. Several years ago, there was a salesman who sold some GNSS gear to my friend Karl, a surveyor and long time friend. The instructions that were quickly given to Karl were minimal and failed to include the admonition to ALWAYS attach the UHF transmission antenna before powering on the UHF radio transmitter. This lead to a fried radio the first time Karl used it and since when he told me, this image has been fried into my brain. Some folks freak out when they hear fingernails dragged across a blackboard, and this is how his story has always resonated to me.
I still haven’t started tests with LoRa, but it’s only because I’m still testing the RS2+ sending out its corrections to the RX via our home WiFi which so far has worked well with our locally good cell coverage.
It was a valid question because it is fairly common knowledge in radios that you should generally not operate the transmitter portion of a transceiver without an antenna attached.
