correct, even without amplifiers I have used high-power wifi-cards, however I have not tried any high TX output on any TP-Link products, which is odd why TP-Link becomes the target.
From reading the full document it seems that the default TP-Link software allowed the routers to operate at higher power levels.
"TP-Link violated the Equipment Authorization and
Marketing Rules by marketing routers in the United States that were shipped with
TP-Link software that permitted the user to change the country code for the router,
thereby enabling the router to operate at a higher power than allowed on certain
restricted Wi-Fi channels."
This doesn't seem to have much to do with OSS/3rd party firmware support which is a whole other can of worms that the FCC opened a few months ago.
This is also seem to be limited to 5ghz only where I guess the US has more restrictions.
"TP-Link violated the Equipment Authorization and Marketing Rules by marketing routers in the United States that were shipped with TP-Link software that permitted the user to change the country code for the router, thereby enabling the router to operate at a higher power than allowed on certain restricted Wi-Fi channels."
This doesn't seem to have much to do with OSS/3rd party firmware support which is a whole other can of worms that the FCC opened a few months ago. This is also seem to be limited to 5ghz only where I guess the US has more restrictions.