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If you want to have something similar for use at home, you could take a look at http://kiwisdr.com http://kiwisdr.com. I have one, but you need to hunt down EM

If you want to have something similar for use at home, you could take a look at http://kiwisdr.com http://kiwisdr.com. I have one, but you need to hunt down EMI sources, before you can properly use it.

madengr 3y ago
I have one too, on an active magnetic loop, which does a decent job of nulling near field interference. http://kiwisdr.lounix.net:8073/ http://kiwisdr.lounix.net:8073/
65a 3y ago
You can also use high-Q antennae, if you have a frequency of interest. For instance, on HF (shortwave) a tunable small loop antenna does a whole lot better than a wire antenna in a high-random noise environment. You may still end up chasing down various bogies, but a lot of them can be blocked with the directionality of the antenna or the filtering properties of the antenna (higher Q antennas are more narrowband).
nomel 3y ago
> but you need to hunt down EMI sources, before you can properly use it. Do you have any recommendations for doing this? I have some source that interferes every 11 seconds for a second or so. It causes packet loss with my wifi (2.5 and 5GHz), and makes my bluetooth game controllers really frustrating to use, since input are missed every time it does it. I assume it's in the microwave range. I'm familiar with RF test equipment, and I've thought about renting a spectrum analyzer, but I assume there's maybe some cheaper way.
- mikewarot 3y ago
  You could get an rtlsdr dongle cheap and use it as a spectrum analyzer. There are command line utilities for that task in with the drivers online.
  - 1317 3y ago
    they don't go up to the 2.4/5Ghz range though, they max out at about 1.7
    - mikewarot 3y ago
      Yeah, but it seems he's got a broadband noise source, likely the 2.4 Ghz is a harmonic of something that is within their range.
throwaway914 3y ago
The limited availability of KiwiSDR's have made it crazy high priced. I've been trying to get one for a year now but they're up to like $600 on aliexpress. KiwiSDR2 has been announced, but that's a ways off from being sold. WebSDR on other hardware is a better alternative-ish.

madengr 3y ago

I have one too, on an active magnetic loop, which does a decent job of nulling near field interference. http://kiwisdr.lounix.net:8073/ http://kiwisdr.lounix.net:8073/

65a 3y ago

You can also use high-Q antennae, if you have a frequency of interest. For instance, on HF (shortwave) a tunable small loop antenna does a whole lot better than a wire antenna in a high-random noise environment. You may still end up chasing down various bogies, but a lot of them can be blocked with the directionality of the antenna or the filtering properties of the antenna (higher Q antennas are more narrowband).

nomel 3y ago

> but you need to hunt down EMI sources, before you can properly use it. Do you have any recommendations for doing this? I have some source that interferes every 11 seconds for a second or so. It causes packet loss with my wifi (2.5 and 5GHz), and makes my bluetooth game controllers really frustrating to use, since input are missed every time it does it. I assume it's in the microwave range. I'm familiar with RF test equipment, and I've thought about renting a spectrum analyzer, but I assume there's maybe some cheaper way.

mikewarot 3y ago
You could get an rtlsdr dongle cheap and use it as a spectrum analyzer. There are command line utilities for that task in with the drivers online.
- 1317 3y ago
  they don't go up to the 2.4/5Ghz range though, they max out at about 1.7
  - mikewarot 3y ago
    Yeah, but it seems he's got a broadband noise source, likely the 2.4 Ghz is a harmonic of something that is within their range.

throwaway914 3y ago

The limited availability of KiwiSDR's have made it crazy high priced. I've been trying to get one for a year now but they're up to like $600 on aliexpress. KiwiSDR2 has been announced, but that's a ways off from being sold. WebSDR on other hardware is a better alternative-ish.