RFTrack

RFTrack is a low-cost monitoring system for White Spaces frequencies running on Android phones (with OS 4.0 onwards). It uses an RFExplorer spectrum analyzer to gather the spectrum measurements and saves them on the phone together with the GPS positions.

Download

Make sure that you have ticked the box in > Settings > Applications or Security > Unknown sources, so that your phone accepts applications that are not in the Google Store. Download the latest version of the application here.

Hardware Setup

To start using the system, connect the RFExplorer to your Android phone using an OTG cable.

Software Setup

When you connect the RFExplorer to your Android phone, RFTrack is automatically launched. The main menu is presented. Select Start New Campaign to get started with a new measurement campaign. You will be asked for a name: give it a name representative of the site (if you add spaces in the name, an underscore will replace the spaces). Select the antenna type (normally it will be omnidirectional). Then you will be asked to select the RFExplorer baud rate: 500000 is the default value on the device, so it should be OK in most cases. Once you click Connect, the campaign will start.

Capturing the data

RFTRack emits a beep for every measurement. Once you are done with the campaign, click on the three dots in the upper right and select Stop Acquisition. Confirm your choice.

Sending the data

When you are connected to the Internet (via WiFi or GSM network), you can send data to the server for it to analyze it and produce the graphs. You can do so by selecting Send Campaign to Email from the main menu. If you want your data to be Public, select PUBLIC to Main Server. You will be asked the name of the campaign to publish and then you will prompted the mail app to send the data. You are done! In few minutes the data will appear on wireless.ictp.it/tvws/

Sponsor

The project was supported by the Shuttleworth Foundation