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
It generally starts with a report – someone using licensed channels having problems, thinks there might be interference, so they ask the FCC to take a look.
So an agent goes out with a directional antenna. This is an antenna that detects signals where it is pointed, but not anywhere else. They connect it to a tuner set to the channel the interference seems to be on, and drive around/point it around until they pick up a signal that is not coming from the licensed transmitter. Then they go investigate.
Generally, they find a malfunctioning device that is transmitting noise, and they tell that person to turn it off and get it fixed. If they don’t then they get legal, but normally this is as far as it goes. But if the person is purposefully running a transmitter, especially if for a commercial purpose. the fines and other penalties can be serious.
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