How Can I Determine a Reader’s Class and Type?

Published: October 20, 2011

I obtained an OEM RFID reader of unknown type and model. It seems that it operates at 62.5 kHz (I checked, using an oscilloscope, the emitting frequency of the reader antenna).

—Name withheld

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There are no RFID readers that operate at 62.5 kHz. The common frequencies used are 125 kHz, 13.56 MHz and 915 MHz. I reached out to James Heurich, the president of of RFID Inc., who says that years ago, a company called Indala used to offer a low-frequency (LF) system that divided the frequency in half for frequency shift keying, a method for tag-to-reader communication. That is most likely the system you have.

—Mark Roberti, Founder and Editor, RFID Journal