I know that if someone were to be interfering with critical radio communications (such as police and fire communications, air traffic control communication, etc.), the FCC (or another country’s equivalent) has equipment to trace down the source.
How does the equipment to find the location work? And also, how does it tell how many transmitters are currently broadcasting at that frequency?
In: Technology
You use a spectrum analyzer. They are super expensive (like 20,000 usd) but the screen shows frequency and amplitude. By scanning the electromagnetic spectrum you’ll notice “peaks” or little mountains. The bigger the peak the stronger the signal. With directional antennas (think old school tv antennas on your roof) you point it around, if the peak gets bigger then that’s the direction the signal is coming from.
There is automated antennas and systems that Use antenna arrays link together that will triangulate on a signal, so you will either drive around or walk and it will throw lines towards the source. Where these lines cross is high probability that the source is.
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