CRFS's VP International Sales Jon Bradley recently authored an article for everythingRF detailing his view on the challenges the RF monitoring world faces, read the summary here or visit everythingRF for the full article.
"Following 20 years in electro-optics and the telecoms industry, I’ve recently shuffled along the electromagnetic spectrum and joined the RF community in earnest. I’m busy preparing a range of educational seminars which we will be announcing soon and thought it might be a great way to introduce those by sharing a few of my own thoughts and experiences in the RF domain.
First, what a culture shock!
We have been utilising the RF spectrum for a range of applications as diverse as communications to astrophysics since humans were first able to master the physics. My shock comes at the realisation of just how we don’t really “master” the RF spectrum. Quite the opposite. In a lot of the applications I’ve encountered so far, we look like cavemen carving stone wheels - most solution designs are compromised due to signal noise issues, interference and the natural or urban geography. The fact we achieve quite so much is frankly a testament to the dedication and bloody mindedness of the engineers involved.
There are some amazingly powerful applications out there waiting to be used effectively. Signal capture and demodulation, transmitter direction finding and geolocation, optimisation of channel utilisation and occupancy, electronic defence capabilities etc. Many times, I’ve been astonished at the way some of these applications have been targeted using extremely cumbersome equipment, huge processing capabilities and engineering brute force. Indeed, many clients have abandoned such applications because the equipment’s too expensive, too difficult to use and not feasible outside of the lab. These clients will then be amazed when they discover that these applications could have been implemented with our incredibly low size, weight, power and cost receivers all along!"
For the full article with Jon, visit everythingRF