@ElectronicallyE , I think you will find this is for the 9th Lora Demodulator found in a gateway.
As yet this is unused on LoraWan and as described on page 14 of the SX1301 data sheet. “This channel is intended to serve as a high speed backhaul link to other gateways or infrastructure equipment.”
The idea is a remote gateway with no internet connection can pass traffic to another gateway, one that does have an internet connection. As yet, this relay type solution has not been defined in the LoraWan specification but could be later this year.
This is pertinent for large spread out countries like Australia, I’ve been looking at this for some time with the idea of implementing a trial.
There is also a FSK demodulator which is also unused at this point in time.
So the take-away message, “Don’t get too excited, its not a 9th channel for a node to use”.