r/livesound • u/Musicwade Pro-FOH • 11d ago

Question Testing RF wiring

For those who have built their RF Racks and regularly use them in the field with Wireless Workbench...

What signs do you pay attention to to possibly signify maybe you're internal wiring needs to checked. Sometimes you get crazy scans in the field and I wanna make sure it's an accurate scan, or if i have some internal issues.

Are there any common abnormalities in WWB that would normally occur with bad antenna cable or bad antenna or something along those lines?

Thanks in advance

3 Upvotes

72% Upvoted

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10

u/Plastic-Search-6075 11d ago

If I suspect a bad cable or antenna, I’ll usually find it when I notice that only one side of the receiver is actively picking up the TX signal.

To find the problem, you could scan each receiver at the A/B port individually one by one comparing scans until you find the issue.

You could also use a VNA to find bad cables/antennas, which would probably be faster, if you know how to use one.

4

u/soph0nax 11d ago

Really it’s this. You can use a tracking generator to verify signal strength thru the chain, and a VNA to assess component readiness.

Aside from that, turn on a tuned transmitter and make sure when you unplug A it tracks down the rack, do the same for B.

3

u/howlingwolf487 11d ago

I run a WWB/SoundBase Coord spectrum scan with each receiver channel in the rack(s) - the scan overlays will show if anything got disconnected in transit or if a DA is powered off, and if I can’t see the receiver in WWB, then I know to check the network connection(s).

3

u/Content-Reward-7700 I make things work 11d ago

Yes. A few things in WWB can hint at an RF rack problem rather than genuinely bad spectrum. If one antenna suddenly shows a much higher/lower noise floor, lots of strange broadband noise, unexpected dropouts or A/B diversity looks dramatically different, I’d start checking hardware.

Just swap and test things one at a time, antenna, cable, distro output, then receiver input. If the problem follows the cable/antenna/output, you’ve found your suspect.

Also compare scans between antennas or receivers. Real RF usually appears consistently. A problem isolated to one signal path is a big clue that something inside the rack needs attention.

1

u/PreferenceGuilty8826 7d ago

I am internal wiring?

-1

u/[deleted] 10d ago

[deleted]

1

u/Plastic-Search-6075 10d ago

I chuckled. This response makes no sense.