Hi
I’m trying to setup a simple point-2-point LoRa system and wanted to know how I work out duty cycle. I’ve found a calculator at https://www.loratools.nl/#/airtime which might be helpful.
What I don’t know are what are the duty cycle rules for Australia when using LoRa in point to point ? - any help would be appreciated.
Also what happens if you don’t abide by these duty cycles ?
Welcome to the forum.
The requirements for the 915-928 MHz are in the Austrlian Radiocommunications (Low Interference Potential Devices) Class Licence 2015, Compilation 2, updated on 27 June 2018 (latest version as of 13/8/2019). Frequency Hoping transmitters, point 58, 915-928MHz transmitters have a maximum power of 1 watt (EIRP) and must have a minimum of 20 hopping frequencies. There’s no duty cycle requirement in Australia that I can find.
https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/F2018C00500
If you were using The Things Network they do have requirements but you said it’s point-to-point.
p.s. I actually thought there were duty cycle requirements in Australia myself until I looked up the legislation.
On the fines part. If you get caught breaking the rules, ACMA do have some lovely cars that drive around covered in antennas, the fines are something like up to two years in prison and or $255,000 for individuals and more for companies.
You’ll find some more information on the page below:
Here’s a photo of one of their cars. They have four-wheel-drives, vans and I’m sure plenty of other methods.
thanks @Shaun21504
I’m surprised no Duty Cycle as its mentioned I believe in US and Europe standard (but I maybe getting confused between LoRa and LoRaWAN)
With the 20 hops min - is that automatically taken care of by the LoRa chips i.e. I do not need to configure or program it ?
I couldn’t find anything but personally I would only transmit as required. No point in using up the airways if you don’t need to.
I also went to the Lora Alliance site to look at the regional parameters and there’s nothing listed for duty cycle for Australia.
https://lora-alliance.org/resource-hub/lorawanr-regional-parameters-v11rb
Hi
I notice that the ISM band in ACMA is from 918-926Mhz but the LorA Pycom states its operates at 915Mhz… therefore it would not comply to Australian standards would be my understanding. Do I have this right ?
The ISM band is for Industrial, Scientific and Medical devices (918MHz to 926MHz). It overlaps with the band for frequency hopping devices, including Lora, which operates over 915MHz to 928MHz.
The link to the updated version (version 3) - https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/F2019C00681
When using Lora (instead of LoraWAN) in Australia, because there doesn’t appear to be any duty cycle limits, it is still best practice to keep transmissions to a minimum?
The legislation talks about having a minimum of 20 frequencies for frequency hopping, is this related to Lora performing chirps?
I was hoping to understand if I setup a point-to-point Lora setup, and select a single frequency (i.e. 917.2MHz, SF12, BW 250kHz, running at 23dBm power) that this is acceptable.
That’s an old post, but just wanted to point out that LoRa point-to-point can be referred to as a digital modulation system, so you don’t necessarily need the hopping frequencies. If you do use the hopping frequencies then it must be 20 minimum, but otherwise, just follow the digital modulation requirements.
So the only restriction is the following for LoRa point to Point:
Digital modulation transmitters
915–928 (915 is not included)
1 W
The radiated peak power spectral density in any 3 kHz must not exceed 25 mW per 3 kHz.
Now I’m not sure how you calculate that it won’t exceed 25mW per 3 kHz, but as a rule, I would say just keep the power low and don’t transmit for too long. But there are no duty cycle restrictions really.
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