Can an Airline Baggage Tag’s Signal Be Boosted?

By RFID Journal

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Ask The Experts › Can an Airline Baggage Tag’s Signal Be Boosted?
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RFID Journal Staff asked 10 years ago
Is there a way to increase an RFID tag’s signal in order to be able to read multiple tags in large groups, such as on airline luggage? My concern is that we we’d be unable to read every tag, especially during transport from one aircraft to another, on baggage carts made of aluminum or fiberglass.

—Joe

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Joe,

Passive ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) RFID tags are used on baggage. There is no way to boost such a tag’s signal beyond the maximum 4 watts of power allowed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

There is always a chance that a baggage tag might not be read if it is blocked by something composed of metal. The best solution is probably to mount a mobile, battery-powered reader on a cart, and to then read the tags as the bags are placed on that cart.

It might be possible to mount a tag somewhere to identify location, so that you can know tags are being loaded at location A and unloaded at location B.

—Mark Roberti, Founder and Editor, RFID Journal

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