Application Note: A New Solution For Signals Intelligence

By James Pierson, Summitek Instruments, and Joseph Kovacs, National Instruments
Spectrum monitoring and signals intelligence (SIGINT) have been critical components of security and intelligence operations. Typically, personnel working in the SIGINT area have required bulky and relatively expensive equipment, limiting their ability to perform critical tasks in the field. National Instruments and Summitek Instruments partnered to develop a platform that offers spectrum-monitoring and signal-demodulation capabilities in a compact, portable form. This article describes how, by combining efforts, the companies have produced a commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) solution for spectrum monitoring and demodulation of off-air signals requiring little software/hardware development.