This weeks gadget of choice is a Tiny SA spectrum analyser

Years ago when I first passed my radio licence a club member brought in a “spectrum analyser” for us to play with. It was about the size of a carry on suitcase and cost about as much as a new car. So quite a fancy bit of kit.

I guess like all things electronic, over time spectrum analysers have both reduced in size and cost and today you can pick one up measuring a few inches across and costing £50 - £60. The one I have measures just 2.5 inches across the screen.

So when I was flicking through the “used items” section of ML&S this week I saw this for £45 and couldn’t hit buy button fast enough.

I’ve been playing with it for a few days now and it’s quite interesting what it does and how is does it. Put simply it tunes/scans through a range of radio frequencies and instead of playing signals when it find the as audio it displays them as peaks on the screen. Very handy for finding local signals that are generated by house hold electrical items that can interfere with my radios. And yes, it’s also just a great little gadget to wrap my head around and play with!