Signal Hound Unveils Digital Modulation Analysis Tools at IMS

May 20, 2015

Coinciding with IMS 2015 in Phoenix, Ariz., Signal Hound has rolled out an update to its free Spike Spectrum Analysis software.

From Staff

Coinciding with IMS 2015 in Phoenix, Ariz., Signal Hound has updated its free Spike Spectrum Analysis software. Version 3.0.8 provides a variety of digital modulation analysis tools for Spike’s BB60C and BB60A USB-powered real-time spectrum analyzers.

Specifically, the new version offers constellation diagrams, symbol tables, error-vector magnitude (EVM) measurements, and bit pattern matching analysis tools for a wide range of modulation types. When coupled with either of the aforementioned spectrum analyzers, it can analyze digitally modulated signals with bandwidths to 27 MHz and frequencies from 9 kHz to 6 GHz.

Prior to version 3.0.8, the Spike software was already capable of signal-to-noise and distortion ratio (SINAD), total harmonic distortion (THD), and percentage of modulation measurements. The update unleashes more sophisticated signal analysis of common digital modulations present in cellular telecommunications, Internet-of-things (IoT), machine-to-machine (M2M), and other radio applications.

Along with Spike’s application programming interface (API) and graphical user interface (GUI), there is significant third-party customization potential. Future versions of Spike will include sub-1 GHz wireless standard modulation tools, as well as higher order modulation analysis tools for QAM64.