RESTON, Va., 12 May 2013. X-COM Systems LLC in Reston, Va., is introducing version 4.0 of its Spectro-X RF and microwave signal analysis software that enables users to search for and analyze signals of interest within long-duration recordings of signal activity.
New features include the ability to analyze as many as four recorded RF and microwave spectrum files simultaneously with precision file alignment to plus or minus one sample, multi-domain correlated markers, and features that make the software easier to use. X-COM is a subsidiary of Bird Technologies Group.
Applications for Spectro-X software include development and analysis of electronic intelligence (ELINT), signals intelligence (SIGINT), electronic countermeasures (ECM), multi-channel communications, and multiple input multiple output MIMO system performance, as well as for testing radar systems.
The software requires no programming skills, and can reduce the time required to discover RF anomalies within a complex spectral environment or to evaluate signal characteristics over time, company officials say.
Spectro-X operates on files of signal activity captured over the air using a COTS signal analyzer and X-COM's IQC5000A series spectrum capture and playback system or on custom spectrum files created in The Mathworks's MATLAB or other software.
It has four discrete search engines -- carrier, wireless standard, arbitrary waveform, and pulse -- that enable users to zoom-in to specific sections of a file in frequency, time, or both, to find signals of interest.
Results can be exported in a file format usable by vector signal analysis software for demodulation and detailed analysis. Pulsed waveforms can be characterized by their rise and fall times, pulse width, pulse repetition interval, peak and average power, and carrier frequency.
Spectro-X 4.0 can align as many as four different files recorded at different times to compare them. For example, in a typical "threat and response" scenario on a test range, an aircraft might make four passes through the measurement area, perform the same RF or microwave functions, and be subjected to the same jamming or radar pulses each time.
This ability is also useful when evaluating time alignment between signal paths in communications systems of any type that employ MIMO capability. For terrestrial or satellite communications systems, Spectro-X 4.0 allows uplink and downlink paths operating at different frequencies to be simultaneously analyzed to determine the cause of degraded performance or dropped calls.
For more information contact X-COM Systems online at www.xcomsystems.com.
