Signal Without Antennas?

[Twitch]

Good morning to the crew. I have what may sound like a hair-brained question, but here it goes...

Will an MR74 AP transmit a signal without antennas being attached? In other words, will the physical body of the AP itself send out a usable WiFi signal? Does it house an antenna, or just the electronic guts of the AP?

We have a situation in one of our shops where, because of a miscommunication with a contractor and an error on an order, only one directional antenna was installed on just about every AP in the shop. The antennas were only connected to the 5 GHz band, leaving 2.4 GHz without antennas. As a result of this, wireless devices in the shop are having issues with getting and maintaining a connection.

The fix for this is already in the works, but the problem got me thinking about how much signal transmission occurs with MR access points if antennas are not attached?

Cheers!

Twitch

[MarcP]

So there is no "terminating resistor" on 2,4GHz, which may cause the problem. 

I mean the MR maybe thinks he has to sent the signal always full power as it don´t see´s an end.

Sorry, hard to explain in english for me. 

But we had the exact same problem and bought something like these:

[Twitch]

Hey @MarcP - correct. Currently, there is no terminating resistor attached to the 2.4 GHz poles, they are just uncovered with no antennas attached.

[cmr · Accepted solution]

@Twitch You cannot get a signal without an antenna attached and may damage the radio if you enable it without antenna or terminating resistor attached!

[Twitch]

Well, damn. The situations you inherit sometimes...

Thanks, @cmr. New onmi antennas are being installed tomorrow. Hopefully it's not too late.