Touchstone-Pro

Touchstone-Pro is a live, browser-operated RF spectrum analyzer. Wireless Toolbox provides editions for an attached RF Explorer and for an RTL-SDR receiver.

Receiver editions

RF Explorer

RF Explorer supplies calibrated signal levels and reports its model, serial number, and supported frequency range. Wide spans use overlapping retune-and-stitch sweeps to produce a continuous trace.

RTL-SDR

RTL-SDR provides an economical wideband view. Its amplitude scale is relative to a nominal noise-floor reference and is not a traceable calibrated power measurement. Use it to identify activity and compare relative levels.

Getting started

  1. Attach the supported receiver to Wireless Toolbox.
  2. Enter the Start and Stop frequencies in MHz.
  3. Select the required display options.
  4. Press Start. Press Stop before changing the frequency range.

The RF Explorer edition accepts spans from 5 to 150 MHz within the attached module’s operating range. It initially opens around the common 470–600 MHz wireless-audio range.

Resolution

  • Auto Resolution favors speed and is appropriate for a broad first look.
  • High Resolution adds sub-scans to approach approximately 25 kHz point spacing. It is slower but better suited to finding narrow clear spaces for wireless-audio assignments.

Use a narrower span when a high-resolution sweep takes too long.

Display controls

  • SNR — display dB above the estimated noise floor instead of absolute dBm.
  • Max Hold — retain the highest signal observed at each frequency.
  • Density — show a persistence map of accumulated measurements.
  • Noise Floor — display the estimated noise-floor reference.
  • Threshold — draw a reference line and emphasize occupied versus clear spectrum.
  • Peak Detect — identify, rank, and label significant peaks.
  • Clear Markers — remove markers placed on the trace or waterfall.

Trace and waterfall

The upper trace shows signal level versus frequency. A moving scan line identifies the part of the sweep currently being assembled. The waterfall scrolls with the newest measurement at the top, providing a time history aligned with the trace.

Select the trace or waterfall to place a marker showing frequency and amplitude.

Status information

Depending on the receiver edition, the status area reports the tuner or RF Explorer model, supported frequency range, estimated resolution bandwidth, noise estimate, and dynamic range.

Export and reporting

After stopping a completed scan, use Export Trace to CSV to download frequency/amplitude pairs. Open the ⋮ menu and choose Save as PDF for a timestamped visual report.