RF Spectrum Analyzers - Anyone have a TinySA?

well for one thing, the TinySA won't go up to 2.4GHz. you can use a cheap RTL-SDR ($20) and GQRX or SDRSharp that will get you raw spectrum analysis, but that won't tell you much except there's some spread-spectrum noise in the frequency range.

is the client residential or more of a crowded business with lots of other networks?

you can force different channels in the router settings; off the cuff, I'd just try a few different ones and see if things improve.

if you wanna do it the hacker way, grab an alfa card and the aircrack-ng suite to monitor what nearby networks are using which channels. if everyone is on channel 6 or 12, go to channel 10 or whatever. I can walk you through that step if needed

My question is what are you going to do if there is a lot of interference in the 2.4 ghz spectrum?

With a wifi analyzer on your phone or laptop you could see the what channels are most used and avoid those with your AP. But if there's other devices, there's nothing you can do besides building a giant faraday cage.

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the TinySA won't go up to 2.4GHz

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The ultra version goes up to 5.3ghz I believe.

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the client residential or more of a crowded business with lots of other networks?

you can force different channels in the router settings; off the cuff, I'd just try a few different ones and see if things improve.

if you wanna do it the hacker way, grab an alfa card and the aircrack-ng suite to monitor what nearby networks are using which channels. if everyone is on channel 6 or 12, go to channel 10 or whatever. I can walk you through that step if needed

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I've tried all my usual tools and tweaks. The area is not too congested but changing channels makes little difference.

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first thought was building materials because that's what I know/deal with

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That was my first thought as well. The house has a metal roof which I thought might be causing some reflective interference or something. Not sure if that is even a thing. Aside from that construction looks pretty typical - stick built, sheetrock and some wood paneling, brick facade.

I've dealt with a lot of WiFi setups and what I'm seeing here is way beyond anything I would expect.

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the radio interference thing reminds me of the issue along essen between the interstates completely obliterating cell coverage. I think it was eventually found out to be an issue with a wireless camera system in the area.

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I think I've got a similar situation on my hands.

Something around college drive completely disconnects my bluetooth wireless android auto puck.

The TinySA Ultra came in last night, and I've had a little time to play with it. It's pretty cool. Given that it costs 10X less than a "decent" unit and maybe 100X less than a higher end one, I wasn't expecting to be blown away but I am impressed with what it can do.

I still have a lot to learn, but the gist of it is you set the frequency window you want to look at and let it eat. There are a number of different calcs that it can run, and the most useful for me is "max hold". If you don't do that you just see spikes flashing around the chart. With max hold the spikes eventually build up into nice looking curves centered on the signal frequency like you might see on a smartphone wifi analyzer app. But unlike the phone apps that only show real wifi signals, this thing shows everything it sees in the range. For example, I gave it a few seconds to analyze my home wifi and it was a nice, clean signal, then I ran the microwave and I could see all the noise it put out. Pretty neat.

This thing is obviously not very powerful given the low price, so the scan speed is very dependent on the range and resolution you choose. If I look at everything from 0hz to 6ghz, it takes a few seconds per pass so it takes it a long time to build up signal spikes.

Anyway, I can pick out a bunch of TV and radio stations, cell phone bands, aeronautical comms, etc so it's pretty fun to play around with. It's crazy how much radiation we are beaming everywhere.

It probably won't help me pinpoint the exact source of interference, but I think it might help me determine whether there is something obviously interfering with wifi.

Once you narrow it down to interference, hook it up to a yagi and find the direction of the interference. If it’s the hospital, call their IT and see what they can do, worst case file a complaint with the FCC.

Could these find an Airtag transmitting?