unusual Pattern in chanalizer 5

[Patrick]

Hi,

During a spectrum analysis for a client, an unusual pattern was detected. Unable to determine what could be the cause. No machinery or any other device is running in the area. Any ideas? (screenshot attached). Thanks.

Patrick

[Joel]

Hey Patrick,

Thanks for the screenshot. Can you get us some high-resolution screenshots of the whole application, or even better, a .WSX recording?

[Patrick]

Hi Joel,

This is the best I can do. Hope it helps. Thanks.

Patrick

[Joel]

Thanks for the screenshot! I see curve shapes center on channels 1, 3, and 11. Each one of those curve shapes is an 802.11b network, or an 802.11 g/n network talking at B rates (which is pretty common, most management overhead is sent at B rates). Each one of the shapes is blue, which means they are only talking about 10 percent of the time - normal for Wi-Fi management overhead.

Looks like a pretty clean environment, other than the network on channel 3, which ruins things for channels 1 and 6.

If you'd like to see some more common signatures, you can find them here.

[Patrick]

Thanks for the update joel.

[nbackus08]

Hi Joel,

Last night I decided to randomly scan my home environment and noticed a 5Ghz shape that does not look common. I was wondering if you can help identify this. Please see shared screenshots and .wsx file. Thanks!

[Joel]

Hi Joel,

Last night I decided to randomly scan my home environment and noticed a 5Ghz shape that does not look common. I was wondering if you can help identify this. Please see shared screenshots and .wsx file. Thanks!

That's a bit "rougher" of a shape than usual, but it does have the look of an OFDM (802.11a), HT-OFDM (802.11n), or VHT-OFDM (802.11ac) signature. The top just isn't as flat as usual, but it's the right width. Wi-Fi signatures do vary quite a bit, my guess is that it's due to different transmitters just being different transmitters.

I hope that helps, thanks!