The Signal Beneath The Signal: IDA 2 Makes Payload And Interference Signals Clear

Detecting RFI, revealing the causes of interference, locating unauthorized transmitters – all these are tasks performed by modern direction finding equipment. Spectrum analysis and time domain displays give much information about the type of signal, but they don’t reveal everything. They are limited to recording the amplitude versus frequency and / or versus time, and often lose information due to display compression. The full picture is only seen when the measured values are recorded without compression and separated into their real and imaginary components, usually referred to as the in phase and quadrature components, or I/Q for short.

IDA 2, the new Interference and Direction Analyzer from Narda Safety Test Solutions, does not simply record and save the I/Q data. It can also evaluate the data immediately, on site, where the results are needed for tracing impairments and interference straight away, rather than back in the office long after the event. Of course, results can also be checked in the office, in case something was missed in haste on site.