Davis Vantage Pro 2 model 6152 USA version or EU version? WHAT SIDE EFFECTS?

[niko]

I meant the transmit power, sorry not to be clear.

It's illegal to import/use the US version in the UK, there's no way to finese your way around that fact.

I do sympathize with you regarding the rip off pricing in the UK though.

[Budgie]

The main problem is that, in the UK, if you have equipment capable of transmitting in a band that has been licenced for a specific use then you require a licence to operate equipment in that frequency range.
The U.S. version is capable of operating in the GSM range so therefore you will require a licence from OfCom to operate equipment in the GSM band. Without a licence then you stand the chance of a fine of up to £1000 and confiscation of the equipment. The type of equipment, signal output strength & frequency hopping capabilities  have no bearing on this, it's purely the ability to transmit in areas of the radio spectrum that are designated for other use.

As said further up this thread, you can use the cabled VP2 from the U.S.  

[Rotare]

Ok-Understood for most part.  If I read it correctly the oFCom license would only be required though if I wanted to use the system WITHIN the GSM band (900-915 or above 925).  If I can set the Davis to a fixed frequency between those bands (unlicensed band 916-924) would it be in compliance?  I'm reading the "Davis Diagnostics" part of the manual right now...  If its purely just the capability of the unit then how are all those quad-band phones OK to use in both USA and EU?  Cant get cabled unit because I want some wireless accessories, remote anemometer kit, leaf and soil probes too...  This info is great-you guys are the best!

[prodata]

In practice, the user has no control over the frequency band that the VP2 wireless uses and so you can't set it to ignore a particular part of the band.  In any event, pretty much all of the wireless spectrum is allocated to specific uses and even if it were possible to avoid say the GSM band then the transmitter would still technically be operating illegally by transmitting on frequencies that it's not licensed to use.

I don't know for sure about multi-band mobile phones, but I assume in a nutshell what happens is that before initiating any transmission they must first listen to what frequencies are in use in the locality (or to pick up a signal that contains this information), which then tells them which frequency bands it's OK to transmit on.

For the record, the EU VP2 stations definitely do frequency hop, albeit on a small frequency range, and their transmit power is AFAIK no different from the US models. (Don't be misled by the licence-free declarations - these are simply stating conformity with the published regulations, not what transmit power is actually used.)