POWER OUT

Power Out in wireless refers to the amount of power in watts being transmitted.  This power may be measured at either the wireless product or at the antenna, and it makes a big difference where it is measured.  The power at the antenna is considered more important for regulating bodies in countries - such as the FCC in the US - since that is the power that will be in the air waves and might possibly interfere with other wireless products.

Power out as measured at the antenna may actually be higher than the power out originally at the output of the product.  That is because many antennas are directional and therefore are said to have a gain associated with them since they concentrate their power in just a few directions.  As an example of this, some early wireless telephone base stations might be 20 watts at the output of the electronics itself.  Perhaps the loss of this power going into an antenna cable going up the mast to the antenna itself might reduce the power to 10 watts.  So far this seems like a power loss.  However, if a 10 db gain antenna is used, the gain will actually be 10 times the original 10 watts and the unit will transmit a full 100 watts.