These devices are what the Communications Ministry often use to track down pirate broadcasters and other unlicensed transmissions or sources of interference. This one is from the BNetzA in Germany (it is not uncommon for them to cross the border into NL to assist Agentschap Telecom and vice versa) – Ofcom UK do have them but the last Ofcom man I spoke to said they had to share one unit (which was older and had a black and white screen) between 3 of the engineers who have to cover a large bit of London as well as Eastern England; and as soon as he realised I actually knew what it was kept a very close eye on it :laugh_at:
The unit can receive any signal from 9 KHz (LF comms used for u-boats etc) to 9 GHz (therefore including all signals of 5 GHz wifi) and anything digital/encrypted can still be recorded onto SD-card for later processing.
A basic one costs around €16 000 – when R & S build “Peilautos/Peilwagens” for the Communications Ministries (which also contain the rack mounted spectrum analysers used for other tracking) they often just invoice for the equipment inside the vehicle and supply the car/van for free (there is little secondhand value for a VW Passat or T4 small van with many 60mm holes drilled in the roof for antennas).
At one point Agentschap Telecom NL used to have the antennas concealed inside a ski box on the roof of the vehicle ; but soon realised that it is not that likely 4 bald middle aged blokes would drive around NL looking for ski slopes :laugh_at:
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