RF Signal Tracker - The RF Signal Tracker is an engineering application for doing impromptu hand-held drive-tests with your Android phone. You can monitor the RSSI (received signal strength indication) for the phone as well as the serving cell locations, describe the cell site's zone of coverage, and save or playback that data. While many of the phone stats in the app can be displayed on the phone already (go to Settings -> About -> Status to see them), the advantage of this app is you can then map, record, and analyze those stats in a meaningful way.
Google or OpenCellID location services are spotty at best -- Google's unsupported service is primarily for 2G GSM sites with less accurate 3G locations. In this app, site locations are only guaranteed to show if the sites are loaded into the devices database. A new feature is the ability to define your own site locations (add, move or remove) by pressing a spot on the map or a site icon. Users can do their own site surveys as they travel. This is a workaround for those who do not have access to site location data -- unless you are an engineer for a carrier, you won't have access to this data since site locations are generally considered proprietary.
RF Signal Tracker features:
· Map and record your color coded signal strength as you travel.
· Users can redefine site locations on the map.
· Play back, pause, jump to any part of recorded data.
· Share current RSSI with Twitter, Facebook, whatever you can share with.
· Sector coverage zones describing sector orientation and beamwidth.
· One Cell Tracking to examine coverage of a single cell site.
· Sound and Vibration notification on handover.
· Possible handoff neighbors.
· User defined sites can be exported or imported for later use.
· Serving cell can be located through Google, OpenCellID.
· Sites located through Google or OpenCellID saved to local database.
· Export recorded data to XML, KML, or CSV files.
· Import older recorded data for playback.
· Roaming and data states, data activity, CGI.
· WiFi MAC address, BSSID, supplicant state.
· WiFi network access points identified.
· EIRP/ERP and Free Space Loss calculators
· Big picture of entire drive test or site survey
· Auto-shutoff at minimum battery level set by user
· Adjust GPS power settings
· App to SD card
What's New in This Release:
· Big Picture display can now be filtered for handoffs, technology, and data activity as well as rssi. This allows the user view these changes graphically.
· Fixed a screen orientation bug that causes a Force Close if device was not oriented correctly.
· To turn off coverage zones in Google Earth KML file exports, uncheck 'Sector coverage' in Preferences.
What's New in 2.4.2:
· Text To Speech (TTS) incorporated into Main and Map tabs. Voice notification of handoffs, technology change, open hotspots, etc. (see Preferences to activate and select language).
· Record notes can now be added while collecting data. Add observations, take note of dropped calls, service outages, etc.
· New 'Drive Mode' view added to Map and Main tabs. Press the 'DM' button and view rssi, cell id, and technology in large font, Good for drive tests were viewing details is difficult.
What's New in 2.4.1:
· Corrected bug in KML file export that caused exports to fail if the recorded signal was -200 dBm.
· Outlying data points can now be eliminated from playback (see preferences).
What's New in 2.4.0:
· Moved calculator from the tab to the Menu group and switched the database activity to the Calc tab.
· RFST now includes a war driving feature which lets users collect, search and map WiFi data.
· Moved the record button to address a bug caused by having it in the menu. RF and WiFi recording initiated by toggle buttons on screen.
· Transparency of the data fields on Map screen is adjustable (Menu > More > Data field trancparency).
· Fix to KML output files.
· Lots of fixes and additions.
What's New in 2.3.3:
· Network type now includes iDen, EVDO B, LTE, eHRPD, and HSPA+.
· Data files can be shared as email attachments.
· Corrected bug in the recorded data screen.
· Corrected signal strength reading when no service detected.
· Background recording will start automatically if user exits while recording.
· Added median RSSI to statistics calculated in recorded data stats.
· Improved German translation.
What's New in 2.3.2:
· Application now localized for French, Spanish, Portuguese, and German!
What's New in 2.3.1:
· Users can populate known cells within 2km of serving cell (Menu -> Load nearby sites).
· Cell site location optimization searches for sequential cell IDs within a given distance of each other and aligns their LAT/LONs. See (Menu -> List cell site records -> Menu -> Optimize site locations) in the Live tab.
· Cell IDs no longer overlap. Serving cell ID shown in red.
· Fixed display bug when viewing Big Picture from recorded data playback.
· Fixed list item focus in preferences screen.
|
