[time-nuts] Very Accurate Delta Time RF Pulse

[Brooke Clarke]

Hi Jerome:

Some time ago a company called Opto Electronics made a frequency counter with a small antenna that would count the 
frequency of a nearby signal.  They call these Near Field Receivers.
Some modern scanner radios incorporate some of these ideas.
http://www.prc68.com/I/BC125AT.html

-- 
Have Fun,

Brooke Clarke
http://www.PRC68.com
http://www.end2partygovernment.com/2012Issues.html
The lesser of evils is still evil.

-------- Original Message --------
> Thank you all who responded including Bob, Attila, Vlad, Brooke, and Chris for some great suggestions.
>
> This is a fun side project of mine to passively detect RF emitters based upon strongest nearby signal using ToA pulses from cheap log power sensors or perhaps the Watson-Watt method.  The hope is to use it in a vehicle with sufficient antenna spacing and time pulse accuracy to create a neighborhood plot with strongest TX locations.
>
> Yes, there are major issues to be overcome.  The super wide band input has no tuner and will pickup massive noise from many near-field sources, such as wi-fi, Bluetooth, or phones, however some can be filtered as noise.  Additionally, very few omni antennas cover such a large input range and I don't think CW signals will be detected properly, as they don't use a distinct rising-edge pulse.
>   
> I'm leaning toward what Bob suggested with a single shot Ghz counter possibly with some type of pulse start/stop timer or a double input A/D with GS/s buffers that can be stopped and momentarily read off whenever a new strong signal is detected or after a set time each second.  Vlad mentioned a phase comparator AD8302, which would also be interesting and allow for analog or possibly digital wideband multi-frequency comparison using phase.  The AD8302 apparently comes with its own internal double log power RF input, which could save on purchasing additional power sensor ICs as well.
>
> Best Regards,
>
> -Jerome
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