Is your RF recording for SIGINT high-fidelity?

Imagine a SIGINT team tasked to uncover RF access points at a power plant.

As it approaches the plant, it discovers the plant’s SCADA network operates as a mesh, with wired and wireless signals.

Workers communicate with handheld trunked radios at 400–450 MHz. There are multiple Wi-Fi access points at 2.5 and 5GHz.

Bluetooth lurks around, and there is also an air defence RADAR between 8-12GHz.

The team has several critical tasks:

• Decode the DMR

• Detect and geolocate the Wi-Fi

• Classify the RADAR

Only high-fidelity RF I/Q data will deliver the enhanced data it needs to get an accurate baseline of the entire power plant and map out the SCADA network for follow on RF over cyber effects.

What is high-fidelity I/Q signal capture?

High-fidelity recording should always include I/Q data, enabling advanced demodulation and decoding. It has a high dynamic range, which increases the sensitivity and capture at the noise floor. Moreover, it has wideband I/Q bandwidth and a high-frequency range, ensuring more signals are captured.

What are the benefits of long duration, wide bandwidth, remote SIGINT collection?

Long duration, wide bandwidth, remote SIGINT collection involves capturing and analysing RF signals over a long period (hours/days), across a wide frequency range, and from a remote location. Highfidelity recording techniques allow every signal to be captured—important as some transitory and low-power signals are easy to miss or hide, especially Low Probability of Intercept (LPI) signals. Detectors and other analytical tools help SIGINT analysts find the “needle in the spectrum haystack” quickly.

What are operators’ SIGINT products of choice?

The RFeye SenS Portable RF spectrum I/Q recorder is designed for the operator who needs to capture and analyse signals in high fidelity across a wide frequency range. It allows you to capture intermittent, low-power, and short-duration signals, even if they occur outside working hours or hide next to other transmission sources.

It is a lightweight, extremely high-resolution RF recorder. It can continuously stream full-rate, 16-bit I/Q data to built-in, enterpriseclass SSDs, so you’ll never miss a signal. With a frequency range of up to 8 GHz or 18 GHz and a 100-MHz IBW, SenS captures and records data with a much higher level of fidelity than can be achieved by other systems.

The RFeye SenS Remote combines the RF and edge processing capabilities of the RFeye Node together with the high-fidelity I/Q recording and signal extraction of the RFeye SenS family. The RFeye SenS Portable is a lightweight, high-resolution RF recorder. It can continuously stream full-rate, 16-bit I/Q data to built-in, enterprise-class SSDs, so you will never miss a signal. With a frequency range of up to 8 GHz or 18 GHz and a 100-MHz IBW, the SenS Remote captures and records data with a much higher level of fidelity than other systems.

DeepView is an RF signal analysis tool that allows operators to quickly identify signals of interest (SIOs) across terabytes of data without wading through hours of recording. It captures and exports ultra-short pulses and other SOIs, drastically reducing postprocessing time. The software allows you to cut, slice, and analyse I/Q data in the field.

Essential intelligence about enemy communications

Tactical high-fidelity RF recording is critical because this data provides essential information about enemy electronic communications. By using CRFS’ SenS products and DeepView software to collect and analyze RF signals, SIGINT analysts can identify and locate communications sources, extract data from intercepted messages, and better understand enemy communication patterns and tactics.

Discover more about CRFS’ SIGINT and I/Q recording solutions at www.crfs.com