[RFI] New interesting feature added to the TinySA per my request for possible use in the RFI arena

[David Eckhardt]

I've not yet explored the TinySA Ultra, but another feather which all
recent HP/Agilent/Keysite (and others) SAs have is a "Line Sync."  If one
has a very spiky display on the SA it's  easy to determine if it is due to
power grid interference or something else.  When Line Sync. is enabled and
the pattern stands still, it's due to 60 Hz power.  If not, it's something
else.  I used this many ..... many times while testing on an OATS.  Rigol
"forgot" that highly useful feature.  At least mine does not have Line Sync.

I'm not making yet another request for a feature as I've not explored the
TinySA Ultra much at all other than to measure phase noise.  But the
feature is extremely useful for RFI.

Dave - WØLEV

On Sun, Jan 8, 2023 at 12:01 AM Don Kirk <wd8dsb at gmail.com> wrote:

> I just uploaded a youtube video demonstrating a feature I had requested the
> designer of the TinySA add which I thought might be helpful in analyzing
> power line noise and other noise sources that are synchronized with 60 Hz
> power and 50 Hz power as an example, and within just a few days the TimySA
> designer (Erik) implemented my idea and today I downloaded the new firmware
> that includes the new feature and preliminary testing indicates it's
> working well.  This feature should allow us to view how many times per half
> cycle a power line is arcing as an example but field testing needs to be
> done to see how well it works and how helpful it really is.  For those
> interested here is a link to my youtube video:
> https://youtu.be/ZKGw_P_aWD4
>
> The feature I have wanted for a long time with some of the available
> free/shareware SDR software packages was for the audio spectrum scope
> available in some SDR software packages to have an automatic trigger that
> was synchronized to 60 Hz in which the audio spectrum scope would be
> updated at a rate equivalent to 1/60Hz = 16.7 msec or a multiple thereof,
> but I could not get anyone interested in adding that feature which was a
> shame.  This is along the same concept of some oscilloscopes that offer
> line frequency triggering.
>
> The TinySA like other spectrum analyzers has a Zero Span mode in which the
> spectrum analyzer displays what I would consider a time domain signal
> instead of the normal frequency domain display, and the horizontal axis
> represents a user defined sweep time when in Zero Span mode.  In zero span
> mode you select the fixed frequency where the spectrum analyzer is
> listening as well as the bandwidth and the spectrum analyzer displays the
> AM demodulated signal that's received within its bandwidth versus time.
> The feature that was lacking is that the display update could not be
> synchronized with the demodulated audio frequency of interest but that has
> been resolved by adding my requested interval trigger timing feature.  I
> requested this feature after N7WS (Wes) asked about how one could view
> demodulated audio on the TinySA and I mentioned that the one feature that
> was lacking was synchronized triggering, so thanks to Wes for getting me
> motivated once again about synchronized triggering.
>
> A lot of real life testing needs to be done to see how useful this new
> feature is, but it definitely is a feature I have long sought in a portable
> unit, and hopefully it will be a permanent feature in the TinySA.
>
> Just FYI,
> Don (wd8dsb)
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-- 
*Dave - WØLEV*