Spectrum Analyzer vs. SDRuno. Whats are the major differences?

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jrodh
Posts: 16
Joined: Sun Jun 05, 2016 8:18 pm

Spectrum Analyzer vs. SDRuno. Whats are the major differences?

Post by jrodh » Tue May 28, 2019 2:01 am

I'm just wondering if anyone can explain what the difference is between the spectrum analyzer software and the normal operation of SDRuno.

It seems to me that they are both performing an FFT, right? What can I do with the spectrum analyzer that I cannot do under SDRuno? I'm certain there is a major difference, but I don't seem to see what it is.

Thank,
Jared

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jon
Posts: 433
Joined: Tue Jan 06, 2015 10:48 am

Re: Spectrum Analyzer vs. SDRuno. Whats are the major differences?

Post by jon » Mon Jun 03, 2019 2:52 pm

Normal operation of SDR receiver software like SDRuno includes the ability to display a spectrum display or 'bandscope' - this is a visual indication of the strength of signals across a range of frequencies which depends on the bandwidth selected. SDRuno with the RSP hardware can show up to 10MHz at a time. SDRuno can also give an accurate indication of the strength of the signals presented to your 50 Ohm antenna socket (shown in dBm) and you can even set a datalogger going to record the strength of specific signals which fall into the output passband (up to 192kHz wide). So this can be very useful as an analysis tool for monitoring the ongoing signal strength of specific transmissions, looking for hamonics from a transmitter and so on.

However a spectrum analyser offers additional facilities - you can set up a sweep over a much bigger Frequency range (in the case of the SDRplay version - anywhere from 1kHz to 2 GHz). You can set up specific trace and detect functions and use in conjunction with a noise source to evaluate filter design. You can see more about this on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spectrum_analyzer (FFT-based description)

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jrodh
Posts: 16
Joined: Sun Jun 05, 2016 8:18 pm

Re: Spectrum Analyzer vs. SDRuno. Whats are the major differences?

Post by jrodh » Tue Jun 04, 2019 3:18 am

Thank you so much for your answer! That totally makes sense.

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