How To Look For & Find 5G Interference in C Band

[mememeth]

[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]updated tinysa ultra menu, enjoy

[el bandido]

The PLZ-SA354400B analyzer arrived yesterday. The total cost with shipping for this item was $57.42. The PLZ-SA354400B was purchased from WalMart online. Several places on the Internet sell this item which means a lesser price is possible. Shipping time was about two weeks. Analyzers that start with LTDZ are also available and probably work similar to the PLZ-SA354400B analyzer. But the LTDZ analyzers seem to be earlier versions.

There are two versions of the PLZ-SA354400B analyzer. One is 135 MHz to 4400 MHz, and the other is 35 MHz to 4400 MHz. I opted for the 35 MHz version. Shown below is the analyzer with packaging.

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No instructions or software download links came with this analyzer! That was sort of expected for the price.


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[el bandido]

It took me several hours to find and install software that would work with the PLZ-SA354400B analyzer. I run mainly Ubuntu Linux, but also have Windows. I managed to find software distributions that will work on Linux and Windows. The screenshot below is from the PLZ-SA354400B analyzer looking at Horizontal transponders on 97w C band. The cursor is over the 3780H transponder that is currently available on 97w.

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For about 60 U.S. dollars a person can buy what is needed to Properly look through the c band lnb on your satellite dish for cellular c band interference. At minimum, you need the PLZ-SA354400B analyzer, and a dc voltage blocking device which costs a few dollars.


IMO, the TinySA Ultra analyzer is much better than the PLZ-SA354400B analyzer. But for those that are cost conscious, on a tight budget, or whatever, the PLZ-SA354400B analyzer.can do at least part of the job of locating c band interference.

[el bandido]

AliExpress has the 135-4400 MHz version of the PLZ-SA354400B analyzer for less than 40 U.S. Dollars with shipping included.

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[el bandido]

Here is a screenshot of my PLZ-SA354400B analyzer looking at the vertical transponders on 117w:
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Looks like my PLZ-SA354400B analyzer is making duplicates of the transponders in the 500-700MHz range. Normally I would not scan like this because the range of my lnb is 950-2150 MHz. I made this scan just to see what it looked like. I do not see any duplicates in the 3-4 GHz range. This means that so far, a 3GHz filter is not needed! The TinySA Ultra makes duplicates of lower frequencies in the 3GHz range, so a filter to block any signals that are less than 3GHz is useful.

It should be noted that both the PLZ-SA354400B analyzer and the TinySA ultra analyzer. inject signals as they scan. So far this has not been a big deal, but it can be seen sometimes if you are watching satellite tv and scanning the satellite transponders at the same time.

The signals the analyzer is injecting can be seen here in BER:
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The effects of the injected signal last less than a second. Note BER is back to normal here:
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Note: Some fta satellite receivers will display some sort of reading for BER. Others won't.

[armadillo_115]

EB, did you ever find a manual for the PLZ-SA354400B?
Can background color be changed on the PLZ-SA354400B? That yellow would be an eye killer for me.

IMO, the TinySA wins hands down. The documentation, user reviews, and support more than outweighs the extra purchase price. I don't (really) need either as long as I don't have suspected 5G RI anyway. (It would be kinda fun to drive around with an antenna to see what all is out there though)

Too bad there are so few C Band dishes still in use: With one of these analyzers, a person could pick up some spare cash doing RI tests for others.

Thanks EB for all the testing you have done! These testings may help several of us make purchase decisions in the future.

[el bandido]

I found a manual for the PLZ-SA354400B in German. This analyzer does not have near the options as compared to the TinySA Ultra, so IMO, you don't really need a manual for the PLZ-SA354400B.

Some features such as background color and font size may be adjusted, Here are the color options in Linux. (Windows has a few more color options.)

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It is a good idea to have a 3GHz filter for the TinySa Ultra. The price of the Ultra and filter is around 200 U.S. dollars. This price includes a few accessories such as cable adapters.

The price of the PLZ-SA354400B can be around forty dollars with shipping included. The 50 MHz version of the PLZ-SA354400B is about 20 dollars more. Purchasing the needed adapters and connectors for the PLZ-SA354400B is 20 dollars or less. This means you would have somewhere between 60-80 dollars invested if you purchased the 50 MHz PLZ-SA354400B. This money is less than or about the same as the cheapest U.S. 5G lnbf that is currently on the market.

There are all sorts of things that you can do with these analyzers. Yes, they are cheap, and yes, their accuracy can be questioned. But they show you what is happening inside your antenna system. These analyzers also show how effective band filters are.

[armadillo_115]

Word of caution:
Been searching around for cheap Chinese 5G waveguide filters just for future reference. I occasionally find filters listed as 3800-4200Mhz (Red) filters. BUT.... Upon viewing the photos or specifications say 3700-4200Mhz band passing!

Gotta watch the sneaky rascals!

[ArloG]

Yeah. A few thoughts.
The RTL dongles were only designed at first for DVB-T reception. It was the brilliance of the guys who dived in the see what else could be done with them that spawned the whole SDR revolution.
My opinion w/o an evening of googlin'.
Still. Those 20 buck dongles have only an 8 Mhz (just a number I tossed in) bandwidth. Some of the SDR applications have a frequency scanner plugin. SDR#, SDRPlay have scanner..spectrum analyzer add ons.
Never the less. They only see that 8 mHz 'slice' of spectrum at a time. There's a sweep oscillator somewhere in some form in there inside SDR applications that emulate grabbing higher bandwidths.

'Diller mentioned drop some bucks and take one for the team in another thread. The SDRPlay RPS2 has been used one hell of a lot. Stellar in performance compared with one of the RTL dongles.
There are better ones out there now for the same price I paid a few years ago for the RSP2.
They have "real" filtering that the RTL dongles simply lack. Notch, band pass...etc. Real ones. But can also be complimented with software DSP filtering.

The real bucks came in the form of an Icom IC-R8600 receiver. Not a toy. As far from an RTL dongle as you could believe. DC-Daylight. But it aint a spectrum analyzer, network analyzer like my HP-Agilent.

So. We're in 2 conundrums here. Ones with fixed dishes and ones with polar mounts.
Filters and LNB's with filters are an all-or-nothing thing. For the "fixed-dishers" getting 5g so-called 5g interference. Not much of an issue. If the problems are solved.
Movable dishes? Maybe you do get (I don't yet...never, I hope) 5g crap. And need it gone.
You just committed of blocking a portion of the c-band for all satellites.
Slapping another LNB and feed on the dish for unfiltered reception would be a pain. I guess some sort of crafty diseqc switch, combiner wizardry probably maybe could be Einsteined up with inline filtering.

We're unique in the USA receiving c-band. The European forums. Where ku reception abounds. I see a lot of the time. And I'll do the best I can on this. Not a verbatim quote, for sure!
"Wot? Youmean theh's actually something ON c-band to be wotched?? Bollocks! I deh-you to prove it"
Then the wanker posts a response with a link to satellite charts on this side of the swamp.
They're clueless.

Oh. Back to the subject. It's an all or nothing thing. You either put up with 5g interference on a satellite or 3. Or filter all of them.
Right EB? (why when I initialize your name here do I think of Green Acres?)
I believe you said that 5g interference was apparent only if the satellite was low in the arc, and a 5g tower was inline with the dish. Or the dish was aimed in the vicinity of an interference source. Or close proximity sources.

"Filters" remind me of the old CATV days with a string of notch filters hanging off the pole if you didn't sub to HBO, Max, SHO.
Or as we called it. Late night ladders and hot hairpin days. Joking, of course!

LNB-ZHAO. One for you. A really good c-band lnbf. Rock solid stability. Switchable filters. Diseqc, 22kHz controlled? Neo became the one. Because he was "The one".
Take care of the issues all in one unit. Don't even make it pretty. Plain brown box it. Show it works. Burn them in at manufacturing. Not talking about a $30 lnbf here. But also not at Norsat prices either. We don't do it because its easy. We do it because we have software, robots, and ovens.

[el bandido]

I installed the Channel Master LTE/5G filter into one of my OTA antennas Shown below are spectrum analyzer results.

TinySA Ultra before filter:
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TinySA Ultra after filter:
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All of the measured interference or un-wanted signals are gone after the filter is installed. The
TinySA Ultra shows a noticeable signal drop in the OTA tv signals after the filter is installed. Anytime a filter is installed, there will be signal loss, but I don't think it is as much as the TinySA Ultra shows.

Here are the PLZ-SA354400B analyzer results of the same filter install:

PLZ-SA354400B before filter:
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PLZ-SA354400B after filter:
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