Question about WLAN Site Surveys with 802.11n APs - 1142s

Question

I do site surveys a little differently that everyone else nowadays, I believe.  In the past, I used an autonomous 1230 or 1240, but now I use a lightweight 1142.  I configure a port in a room to be on the AP VLAN and I connect my 1142 to the port and hang it where I want - it then gets on the controller and start broadcasting just like the finished product will.  This works well except for the time it takes me to configure a port on the switch and the bootup time for the AP.  I'm one of the Networks Architects on a campus of almost 200 buildings, so I have access to all the routers and switches and can configure anything I need while onsite.
Now I want to have someone else (in-house) to do our surveys - but this person(s) does not have access to switches and routers, and that won't ever change.
I tried configuring a lightweight 1142 in HREAP mode to handoff to this person, but it appears the power and channel settings don't stick on the 5 GHz side.
Scrapping that idea, I now have to build out an autonomous 1142 for site surveying.  I missed out on this step because I went from buying 1242s (can jump between lightweight and autonomous) to 1142s (which didn't have an autonomous image at that time, I believe).  This is why I started surveying with lightweight 1142s.
I'm curious if anyone has gone through the configuration of an autonomous 1142 and wouldn't mind sharing their "lessons learned".  I haven't seen a matrix of features that are supported/not supported on 1142s when configured for lightweight vs. autonomous.
I currently aim for designing around the 5 GHz radios set to 10 dBm, 20% cell overlap.  I also turn on 40 MHz channels in 5 GHz range.  This usually ends up with an AP in every other or every third classroom, depending on how old the building is and how many times it has been renovated.  I can't "just throw APs out there" since each building is different - some are thin concrete block, some are poured cement, and some are block with metal mesh and stucco.  Those usually end up with on AP per classroom.
Does anyone have a matrix on what can and cannot be turned on in an autonomous AP?  I would like to get my config as close to the lightweight scenario we deploy for all of our production WLANs.

Answer 1

There is no matrix as to what you're asking for. I've done conversions and configurations of AP's from Lightweight to Autonomous and vice-versa. The configuration of the autonomous AP can be identical to the Lightweight AP from a client perspective.
My current setup has 3 SSID's (VoIP, Data, and Guest) on the autonomous AP. Couple things I do:
1. PoE powered AP through a Tessco power pack.
2. VLANs have to be enabled on the AP (1 for each SSID)
3. The SSID's will have to be created and each AP mapped to a VLAN
4. The SSID's will be need to be enabled on both radios if desired.
The easiest way to configure the AP is to power it with either the power cord.
Console into the AP and let it boot. Assign an IP address to the BVI 1 interface.
Assign an IP address on the wired NIC of our laptop and plug an ethernet cable into the AP's ethernet port.
Configure the AP as listed above via the web gui.
This is by no means a complete answer, but your questions were all over the map.
Regards,
Jerry