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RF and electrical

Chip: Microchip/Atmel AT86RF215 dual-band transceiver, two modules.

Software-visible bands

Band Range in driver Typical channel spacing
Sub-GHz 389.5–1020 MHz 25–400 kHz
2.4 GHz 2400–2483.5 MHz 200–2000 kHz

Gateway default (both modules): 869.535 MHz, 200 kHz spacing, OFDM, Native accelerator, channels 3 and 11.

Always select a channel plan, bandwidth, and transmit power authorised for the operating region.

Modulations (Implemented)

  • OFDM MCS 0–6, options 0–3
  • QPSK chip-rate / rate-mode
  • FSK symbol rate, modulation index, optional convolutional FEC

Accelerator: on-chip (Native) or FPGA (Hardware) when the board has the FPGA path.

RF specifications

Parameter Wiki / sheet
Sensitivity down to −123 dBm
Raw throughput (4× RF, no protocol) 4.8 Mbps @ −92 dBm
Per-channel RF output 30 dBm @ MCS0 … 24 dBm @ MCS6
Max TX sub-GHz 1 W EIRP
Max TX 2.4 GHz 250 mW

Protocol overhead (Reticulum + LDPC) reduces application throughput. Do not size a C2 link from the 4.8 Mbps line.

Electrical specifications

Parameter Min Typical Max
Supply 5 V 15 V
Idle current ≈ 0.8 A
RX power ≈ 1.3 W
TX power (DC) ≈ 11.3 W