5020 MHz rfi in cband
31may13
Links:
Intro
01mar13: 5020 rfi in a2765 data
hilltop rfi monitor sees the rfi appear
Searching for the source of the
rfi.
04_05 jun13: hilltop data shows when things
turned off.
05jun13: 5-6 Ghz band. How it now looks on the
telescope
Summary
Notes:
- U-NII -is an abbreviation for Unlicensed National Information
Infrastructure radio band used for internet communications
Intro: (top)
Various projects (a2765, a2334) reported
interference at 5015-5025 MHz. This frequency range is also used for
vlbi observations.
The fcc allocation database has:
- 4990-5000: radar astronomy, space research (passive)
- 5000-5010: aeronautical radionavigation,
radionavigation-satellite (earth-to-space)
- 5010-5030: aeronautical radionavigation,
RADIONAVIGATION-SATELLITE (space-to-Earth) (space-to-space)
- 5030-5091: AERONAUTICAL RADIONAVIGATION
- 5091-5150: AERONAUTICAL RADIONAVIGATION
- 5150-5250:
- federal: AERONAUTICAL RADIONAVIGATION
- non-fed:AERONAUTICAL RADIONAVIGATION,FIXED-SATELLITE
(Earth-to-space), RF devices
We would expect to start seeing rfi at 5150 and above due to the RF
devices.
To investigate this rfi:
- The data from a2765 is examined (01mar13).
- The hilltop monitoring data shows when this rfi increased
- a spectrum analyzer and helix antenna was used to find a
direction for the rfi.
- A trip in the rfi van was made to yiyi avila's tower.
01mar13: 5020 rfi in a2765 data. (top)
A2765 was doing double position switching with
the mock spectrometers. The channels widths were 10 Khz.
The dynamic spectra
shows 300 seconds of data measured on 01mar13 (.gif)
- the 5015-5025 rfi is present for the entire time.
- a weaker 4970-4950 is also seen.
The average spectrum for the
300 second image is also plotted (.ps) (.pdf):
processing:
x101/130301/cbrfi5020.pro
The hilltop monitoring records a 60
second peak hold on the 5000-6000 MHz band every 19 minutes.
The first plots shows 20MHz total
power about 5020 MHz for 01jan13 thru 01may13 (.pdf):
- Page 1 Top: power vs date:
- For each 1 minute peak hold, 20 MHz about 5020 was averaged
and then plotted vs time.
- 12feb13: jumps from -58 to -56 db
- 22feb13:increases from -56dbm to -47dbm on 26feb13.
- Page1 bottom: power vs hour of day
- The power is plotted vs hour of day.
- There is a slight increase in power peaking around noon.
This may temperature variation of the amps .
The 2nd set of plots shows The
average spectra for each day : 10feb13 through 05mar13 (.pdf).
- The average spectra at 5000 - 6000 MHz is plotted for each
day.
- The data yymmdd is printed at the top left of each plot
- the 5020 rfi starts to increase on 13feb13.
- a second increase in intensity occurred around 21feb13.
The 3rd set of images show
dynamic spectra for 10feb13 through 05mar13 (.pdf):
- each image is a separate day (the date is in the upper left).
- There is weak rfi in 5015 - 5035 until 12pm. 12feb13 ..
this is on the left side of each plot.
- at 12pm 12feb13 the 5015-5025 rfi gets a lot stronger.
- there is a small step down in frequency at 19:30 on 22feb13
processing:
x101/130316/hilltop.sc
The anritsu spectrum analyzer was taken to the
platform with the cband helix to search for the direction of the
5020 rfi. Nothing was seen (even with the preamp on).
On 24may13 an amplifier right next to the helix antenna. The
chain was then: helix, amp, cable, anritsu spectrum analyzer (with
preamp on).
- The amp was a jca48-200: 4-8 Ghz, 20db gain, 1.6 db noise
figure.
- denis and i then went to the platform with this setup.
- The rfi was coming from the direction of yiyi avila's tower.
30may13:1st trip to yiyi avila's tower:
On 30may13 dana and i drove out to within 2
km of yiyi avila's tower in the rfi van.
the plots show the strength
of the rfi close to the tower (.ps) (.pdf):
- The receiver setup was:
- cband helix with jca amp.
- short cable then anritsu spectrum analyzer with preamp on:
- rbw set to 1 MHz
- average 10 sweeps and do a peak hold in trace b.
- The black trace is an average of 10 sweeps. the red trace is a
max hold.
- The colored vertical lines show some of the prominent bands:
- 5010 -5029
- 5028-5044
- 5101-5118
- 5120-5182
- These band are wider than those seen in the AO data. If the
limits were set at the 3db points they would be much closer in
width.
- These strong rfi went down in strength when we pointed
the helix 90 degrees from yiyi's tower.
- There are weaker bands. It was hard to see if they went down
when we pointed away from yiyi's tower since they were so close
to the noise floor.
- The van was 1.8Km from the tower.
processing: x101/130530/rfivan.pro
04jun13: 2nd trip to yiyi avila's tower.
On 04jun13 angel and i drove out to yiyi
avala's tower. We arranged to meet the tower engineer at the site.
We used the anritsu spectrum analyzer for the measurements. Its
setup was:
- helical antenna centered at 5 ghz.
- jca amp then short cable to spectrum analyzer (about 1 meter).
- preamp on (when 2km from the tower). preamp off when at the
tower.
- avg 10 sweeps, and also record peak hold.
The plots show the rfi in 5000 to
5200 MHz (.ps) (.pdf):
- The black trace is an average of 10 traces. red is a peak
hold.
- Top: Measurement taken 1.8 km from tower with helix pointing
at the tower.
- This is from the same location as the 30may13 data above.
- The dashed green line shows the start of the unlicensed
band. All of the Internet communication bands should be above
this.
- Bottom:
- data taken at the bottom of yiyi avila's tower.
- This is after the del Vivi net equipment had been turned
off by the tower engineer.
- The rfi 5010 -> 5080 went away when this equipment was
turned off.
- The engineer then called the company and they
stopped broadcasting on these frequencies.
- The engineer also turned off the 4net equipment. This caused
the 5100 rfi to go away.
- He then turned the equipment back on (he didn't leave it
off long enough for me to record a spectrum).
- The engineer called the company and left them a message
(they were out at the time of the call).
- It's interesting that 2 km from the tower, the "5100" MHz
rfi was centered at 5110. At the tower (with the preamp off
and the 5010-5100 rfi off), the band was then centered at
5100.
processing: x101/130604/rfivan.pro
04,05jun13: hilltop monitor data shows
rfi turning off.
The hilltop rfi monitor data was examined to
see when things got turned off:
- 04jun13:
- dynamic spectra
(.pdf)
- 11:15 - This is where the engineer shut off del
vivi.net equipment. The network owners then stopped using
that frequency
- The weak 5030 and 5055 birdies both went off.
These correspond to the data going off in the spectrum
taken under the tower.
- The strong rfi (seen in the hilltop data) at 5020 did
not go away.
- The 5020 signal did go away at yiyi's tower. This means
that the company was probably also broadcasting at
this frequency from a different tower (that was
probably closer to AO).
- 19:15: The strong 5020 rfi went away.
- A strong signal then appeared at 5540 MHz.
- My guess is that the company operators probably
decided to stop broadcasting illegally at their other
tower location. They moved from 5020 to 5540 (which is a
legal frequency for them to broadcast on).
- Average spectra from
hilltop data (.ps) (.pdf)
- This plots shows 3 separate spectral averages from
04jun13.
- black: midnite to 11:00
- . this is before anything was turned off
- red: 11:15 to 19:00
- The vivi.net equipment had moved out of the 5010-5100
MHz band
- green: 19:15 to midnite.
- The strong 5020 rfi moved to 5540 MHz
- 05jun13:
- dynamic spectra (.pdf)
- 12:15 - The 5100 MHz rfi went off the air.
- I guess the company finally got around to moving to a
legal frequency
- Average spectra from
hilltop data (.ps) (.pdf)
- There are two separate averages for 05jun13
- black: 00:00 to 12:00 - the 5100 MHz rfi is on
- red: 12:30 to 16:45 - 5100 MHz rfi
is off.
- there is stilll some narrow rfi around 5010 - 5030.
- You can see this as irregular single channel spikes in
the 05jun13 dynamic spectra. I'm not sure whether these
are coming from the same source as the original 5010-5160
rfi.
processing:
x101/130604/hilltop_04jun13.pro,hilltop_05jun13.pro, hilltop.sc
05jun13:cband 5-6 Ghz on the telescope
after rfi turned off.
On 05jan13 400 seconds of data was taken with the
cband receiver using the mock spectrometer. 5 to 6 Ghz was
covered. The setup was:
- az=285, za=10
- 172 MHz/band each with 8192 channels.
- 400 1 second records were recorded.
- Dynamic spectra, average records, and rmsbychan/mean plots
were made:
- PolA and PolB were averaged
- Processing:
- Dynamic spectra: images were divided were divided by the
average bandpass
- Average spectra: 400 second average, then normalized to the
median of each band
- average Spectra - fit
- A robust 31st order harmonic fit was made, and then the
fit was divided into the average band (to remove the
bandpass).
The first plot show the
average, average/fit and rms/mean for the entire 5-6 ghz band
(.ps) (.pdf)
The table
shows the dynamic spectra and 400 second averages, rms/mean for
each 172 MHz band:
freq
|
Avg,rms
spectra
|
dynamic
spectra
|
Notes
|
5075
|
(.ps) (.pdf)
|
(.gif) |
5130,5145 illegal internet
comm.
legal unlicensed band starts at 5150
|
5225
|
(.ps) (.pdf) |
(.gif) |
more internet comm. using
U-NII band
|
5375
|
(.ps) (.pdf) |
(.gif) |
U-NII band stops at 5350
5415 rfi may be illegal
|
5525
|
(.ps) (.pdf) |
(.gif) |
U-NII band starts again at
5475
5468 edge of rfi may be illegal.
most of these are internet comm.
|
5675
|
(.ps) (.pdf) |
(.gif) |
more internet comm.
|
5825
|
(.ps) (.pdf) |
(.gif) |
5790-5800 very large rfi.
U-NII band stops at 5825.
|
5975
|
(.ps) (.pdf) |
(.gif) |
|
processing: x101/130605/cbrfi.pro
Summary: (top)
- a2767 reported rfi at 5015-5025 on 01mar13 (or maybe a little
earlier).
- looking at the hilltop monitoring data:
- There has been weak interference 5010-5040 for at least all
of this year
- 12pm 12feb13 the 5015-5025 rfi increased in strength.
- around 21feb13 a second increase in power occurred.
- Driving out to yiyi avila's tower proved that this
interference is coming from yiyi avila's tower.
- The 5010 - 5100 rfi seen at yiyi avila's tower went away when
the del vivi.net equipment was turned off
- The strong 5020-5030 rfi seen at the observatory remained on
until 19:15 04jun13.It then moved to 5540 MHz (which is a
legal frequency)
- My guess is that the company was also broadcasting
illegally at another tower (closer to AO).
- The 5100 MHz rfi seen at yiyi avila's tower came from 4net
equipment on the tower (the signal was only turned off
temporarily). On 05jun13 around 12 noon the signale went away.
- The unlicensed band that the internet operators can use is:
- 5150 - 5350 MHz
- 5475-5825 MHz.
- Some of the internet companies that were broadcasting outside
of the legal band were:
- del vivi.net
- pr-523 km 2.7, hc-04 box 10331 utuado, pr 00641
- 787-467-6466.
- www.delvivi.net .. there web pages shows their
equipment on more that just yiyi avila's tower.
- 4net.inc
- emanuel gonzalez was listed as the owner.
- carr 2 km 81.5 bo san daniel, hatillo, pr 00614
- Looks like they are part of tv4all .. a "dish" provider
company in hatillo.
- On the telescope,
- 5000 - 5130 is now clean.
- 5130 to 5150 rfi is probably illegal.
- 5415 rfi may be illegal (it's out of the U-NII band is looks
like internet comm.).
- Pretty much the entire U-NII band: 5150-5350, 5475-5825 is
full of internet communications and is unusable for radio
astronomy.
rfi measurements
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