Finding signals

Library → Occupancy shows how busy each frequency on the selected Device has been, hour by hour.

Scan

A Scanner drives one channel, never the radio. On auto tuning the radio follows the channel. Tuned by hand, the radio stays put and the scan skips targets outside its window.

1. Add a channel in the mode you want to hear and wire it to a Speaker.
2. Add Scanner and wire its control to the channel's control.
3. Enter frequency ranges and choose a mode.
4. Set the detection level and start.

Match the step to the service's channel spacing. The scanner measures each target over the channel's own bandwidth, so a narrow channel scans selectively and a wide one forgivingly.

On a hit the channel parks there so you hear it. The scan resumes after the signal has been quiet for the resume delay. Skip leaves the current frequency and ignores it for the rest of this scan. The channel's dial is locked while scanning, and stays on the last frequency when you stop.

Radios that support it sweep in firmware, which pauses other channels on that radio while it runs. Otherwise the scanner steps. The Sweep readout shows which one is in use.

Identify a signal

Add Signal identifier and select a span up to 192 kHz wide. It lists each transmission, strongest first, with modulation, bandwidth, symbol rate, deviation, and burst timing.

For each one it suggests likely protocols. A suggestion marked Confirmed was proven by a real decoder finding valid frames. The others are guesses from the waveform and the band.

Interval sets how long it listens per report. Threshold sets how far above the noise a signal must be. A quiet span is reported once, not every interval.

It cannot see spread-spectrum signals below the noise, or separate tightly packed HF signals like FT8.

Monitor a band

Wire Device iq → Spectrum monitor → Decoder log. The monitor watches the Device's whole window, finds every transmission, and tries the matching decoders on each one. It adds no channel nodes and never tunes the radio.

Protocols picks what it decodes. Everything is on by default. Pick a preset such as Analog voice, or toggle single protocols. Off protocols are skipped, not logged.

Each transmission produces one event when it ends, with frequency, bandwidth, confidence, decoder results, and optional audio. Open it in the log to play the audio.

Limits: 32 signals at once, three decoder attempts per signal, two seconds of IQ kept for late decoders. Anything dropped is reported. Pictures and video are not decoded here.

Hunt a transmitter

Signal hunt reads one channel's signal strength fast enough to walk with. Wire its control to the channel's control and start it. Retune the channel to retune the hunt. On a phone, use the Fox hunt mission in field mode.

Survey an area

1. Add Signal survey and wire Device iq and GPS position to it.
2. Pick an offset inside the Device's window and a measurement width.
3. Wait for a level and a GPS fix, then start.
4. Export the results as CSV when done.

Each GPS fix records the peak level in dBFS within the slice, grouped into cells of about ten metres. Keep gain, antenna, and width the same, or the numbers will not compare. Pause before you change the receiver.