Scott Baxter, wireless industry expert and CEO of Nashville-based consulting firm Scott Baxter & Associates, uses Signal Hound spectrum analyzers in his company’s interference hunting processes. The capability and cost of Signal Hound devices play a role in Baxter’s decision to utilize the spectrum analyzers.
“The BB60C is certainly an innovation in the rise of SDR technology and the price/performance ratio is an order of magnitude better than for lab instruments from the major manufacturers” said Baxter.
Using Signal Hound spectrum analyzers and software in conjunction with other industry-standard tools (shown in the presentation below), Baxter & Associates are able to perform in-depth analyses of wireless infrastructures, monitoring the networks for items such as interference with LTE systems. Some of their research is displayed in the following images:
Scott Baxter’s LTE research using Signal Hound spectrum analyzers
Scott Baxter’s LTE research using Signal Hound spectrum analyzers
In addition to price and performance, portability is a key feature of all Signal Hound devices. The convenient size of the Signal Hound BB60 is important to Baxter for field work. Baxter states:
“Using the BB60 [for] chasing weak interferers in the presence of very strong off-frequency signals, I have resorted to conventional tuned filters and very low noise figure amplifiers ahead of the analyzer…Recently I bought a few YIG filters on Ebay and combined one of them with an LNA in a small enclosure roughly the size of two cigarette packs stacked. The performance is acceptable for interference-hunting tasks from 380 MHz to above 12 GHz, and now I’m prepared to do battle everywhere I go on a moment’s notice.”
Affordable, powerful enough to do serious work, and sized so it’s ready to go “everywhere on a moment’s notice”—these are the reasons we created the Signal Hound line of devices. Signal Hound wants to provide the wireless industry with portable and affordable tools capable of capturing and displaying comprehensive data in a straightforward manner, and it sounds like Baxter & Associates have figured this out. With the levels of skill and knowledge that exist at Baxter’s consulting firm, we’re humbled that our devices are a part of their process.
For more information, and lots of details regarding his research, Scott created a 71-slide presentation titled “FM Harmonic Interference to LTE Wireless Systems.” You can download the presentation here:
Scott Baxter & Associates are wireless industry consultants and trainers offering a wide variety of educational experiences in the form of open-enrollment public classes, private on-site training, and specialized consulting. Visit www.scottbaxter.com for more information.
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