Low cost Spectrum Analyzer

[bobsgarage]

I followed the lead of Pete Higgins and set up a low cost RTLSDR spectrum analyzer.

For more info, see this thread in the Hi-Def forum:

http://www.highdefforum.com/local-hdtv-info-reception/143795-inexpensive-software-defined-radio-spectrum-analyzer-10-00-a.html

It cost me less than $10 in hardware, free software and it rivals some of the screenshots of spectrum analyzers I have seen around the different forums:

http://forum.tvfool.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=2474&stc=1&d=1480661525

http://forum.tvfool.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=2475&stc=1&d=1480661525

Thanks for reading, I am just scratching the surface, but already I see that is very useful and cost 99% less than a professional analyzer !


Bob

[WIRELESS ENGINEER]

Excellent information and from what I've seen, they look like they work well and I sure wish I had a tablet that could support it

I bought 2 of them a few months back and couldnt make either one work with xp or my kindle or my android phone so for me it would require buying a new computer or a new phone which would cost more than buying a stand alone unit

[bobsgarage]

Excellent information and from what I've seen, they look like they work well and I sure wish I had a tablet that could support it

I bought 2 of them a few months back and couldnt make either one work with xp or my kindle or my android phone so for me it would require buying a new computer or a new phone which would cost more than buying a stand alone unit

Well, it's been almost a year and I have made a lot of spectrum saves, done a lot of overlays etc... It's really a great tool. I will admit that it does needs a fairly powerful PC. The one I run is a "hot rodded" HP with an i7 4770 and Intel SSD, 16 GB RAM, Windows 10 Pro. Even with that it tends to take a fairly long time to analyze the spectrum. Several minutes anyhow.

I used it so much trying to analyze my two antenna set-up and got the antennas pointed to optimum that I finally unhooked it, no use for it. If need be, I can rerun a cable to the PC for signal analysis in the future.