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The paper presents the design and implementation of an electromagnetic field monitoring sensor for the measurement of the Terrestrial Truncked Radio (TETRA) signals using low-cost software defined radio (SDR) platforms. The sensor includes: an SDR platform, a Global Positioning System (GPS) module and a hardware control module. Several SDR platforms having different resolutions of the analog–digital converters were tested in the first phase. The control module was implemented in two variants: a fixed one, using a laptop, and a mobile one, using a Raspberry Pi. The tests demonstrate the following achieved performances: instantaneous acquisition band of 5.12 MHz; dynamic range of the input signal level of (−100 to −30) dBm; frequency resolution of 2.5 kHz; portability and flexibility for use in outdoor environments. The sensor allows complete reporting through amplitude-time-frequency-location descriptors, and in the case of the mobile version, the system performs correctly even at a maximum speed of displacement of 120 km/h. The price of the mobile sensor system variant is approximately EUR 320.

In this article we propose the use of the persistence spectrum to accurately assess the user’s exposure to electromagnetic field emitted by new generation of communication terminals. Persistent display view available within a Real Time Spectrum Analyzer (RTSA) enables a graphical observation of the main statistical parameters of a signal. A simple case study of exposure assessment was conducted by measuring the electric field strength in the close proximity of a mobile phone operated in a LTE-Advanced mobile communication network. The proposed measurement procedure is presented and then applied to a limited number of operating situations (VoIP, Video streaming, File upload, File download). We made use of the persistence spectrum capabilities to directly access the signal strength statistics in time. By this procedure we demonstrate a supplementary facility that enables direct visual tracing of exposure dynamics during real time usage of a specific mobile application.

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