Forensic Examination of Radio Interference Incidents

This consultant is an electrical engineer with a doctorate and extensive experience in both radio spectrum policy issues and radio spectrum monitoring issues.

In today's economy, many businesses depend on radio systems as a key part of their operations. Radio interference issues can be both intentional, as in jamming, or unintentional. In either case, the victim of the interference would like to eliminate it quickly and may want to consider accountability issues. If the interference persists for a long time and the source is fixed, then classic radio direction finding technology can be used to home in on the source and identify it. However, many cases of interference do not permit such an approach due to short durations or dynamic scenarios.

In such cases, forensic examination of recordings can help identify the source of the interference. Ideally such recordings should be made with equipment designed for forensic work but more normal recordings can sometimes yield key information. All radio transmitters differ in subtle details due to component variation and these variations can often be noted in recordings of the signal that causes interference. This analysis can be used to eliminate possible sources and to confirm suspected sources. This technique has been used for actual cases involving both mobile terrestrial systems and satellite video downlinks.

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