Kestrel TSCM Professional Software

User Interface (UI)

The operator centric, workflow based, User Interface (UI) enables unprecedented operational effectiveness by grouping and dynamically linking essential control elements and control groups up-front, making them easily accessible and intuitive to the operator.

All essential technical operator control groups are visible on the user-interface or directly accessible from the menu bar or the sidebar control group.

The Kestrel UI provides ease of use not found on competitive TSCM products or test and measurement equipment designed for engineering applications in a controlled laboratory environment.

The system utilizes predictive logic and intelligent automation to minimize operational deployment complexity, thereby maximizing key performance metrics, such as the Probability of Detection (POD) and Probability of Intercept (POI) metrics.

Kestrel TSCM Professional Software’s advanced dynamic control linking, sophisticated artificial intelligence and predictive logic, provide recommended system settings that offer excellent performance in even the most demanding spectrum environments, while giving experienced operators the ability to optimize system settings for their target application manually.

Recent user-interface updates advance generational technology to include ultra-fast spectrum modeling of exceedence and burst detection resources with a measure of artificial intelligence.

RF Spectrum Display (RSD)

The RF Spectrum Display (RSD) is an important tool for visualizing and interpreting signals. Basic forms of the traditional power versus frequency spectral display are useful for many engineering applications, but a more sophisticated display is needed to make sense of the complex RF spectrum found in many real-world scenarios.

Frequency hopping and other short duration transmissions often used by modern communications technologies pose special problems. The spectrum display benefits from extensive practical experience and provides an array of useful features and functionalities specific to the TSCM role.

The user can select options for spectral processing parameters, such as the choice of windowing function at the hardware and software level.

A wide variety of visual trace options are available to the technical operator, including a Real-Time Event (RTE) trace, a Peak Envelope Capture (PEC) trace and a Spectral Average (SAT) trace, are all available to enhance the Probability of Technical (POD) and minimize unwanted RF display clutter.  The user can display or hide the RF Spectrum Display (RSD) as desired without interrupting, or otherwise affecting the data processing and collection.

Waterfall Display (WFD)

The waterfall display (WFD) is particularly useful for detecting and examining short duration signals including Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum (FHSS) and other burst signals. Using the real-time spectrum analysis mode, even the shortest duration signals can be reliably detected and their timing relationships examined.

The waterfall and spectra are recorded in real-time and provides the ability to immediately review signal events using our Live View Analysis (LVA) feature without interrupting the processing and collection functionality. All RF spectrum and waterfall data is captured and stored on the host computer, enabling the user to employ Live View Analysis (LVA) functionality for subsequent analysis.

The user has full and unrestricted control of the data collection process and can define multiple activity schedules to include deployment of the Delay Start Mode (DSM) or the ability to collect spectral data for a specified period of time, allowing for multiple start and stop events to occur at the band or receiver level.

The default continuous mode permits the technical operator to continuously collect waterfall spectral data until the software is manually stopped by the operator. This capability allows the technical operator to playback specific spectral time events during runtime collection and for post-analysis.

Independent waterfall reference level scaling, another powerful tool, permits the technical operator to display the RSD and WFD at different reference level power settings, thereby enabling the color representation of the WFD to be optimized for signals of interest under review.

The user can display or hide the Waterfall Display (WFD) as desired without interrupting, or otherwise affecting the data processing and collection.

Live View Analysis (LVA)

The LVA feature provides a means for real-time operator analysis and review of continuous and intermittent signal events by navigating to any signal event during runtime.

Our LVA technology makes it possible to navigate to any historical spectra or waterfall event without the need to interrupt the data collection process, which continues to run in the background. The operator can move forward and backward on a trace by trace basis for absolute precision analytical analytics.

Additional tools allow the operator to locate the strongest occurrence of the SOI and our seamless Positional Zoom Control (PZC) and trace display options bring clarity and focus to the characterization of any historically recorded signal event during live collection or post analytical review.

This powerful analytical feature operates across all of the primary software features at the navigation level.

Kestrel Reference Traces (KRT)

The ability to immediately capture, display and export any number of Kestrel Reference Traces (KRT) on the current spectrum display is fully supported. KRT files can also be imported from an operator maintained local KRT database to display progressive captures as a reference overlay. Technical operators are encouraged to capture and contribute working KRT files to the Global Spectrum Analysis Database (GSAD) maintained within the Technical Support Group (TSG) Resource Centre website.

Positional Zoom Control (PZC)

Using settings easily accessed from the Positional Zoom Control (PZC) window, the operator can easily navigate to and zoom in on a signal of interest.  A right mouse click allows the operator select from a list of predictive logic zoom control options, based on the current CF displayed on the spectrum interface.

Kestrel Drag and Drop Technology (DDT)  focuses the SOI at its center frequency with an automatic 20x zoom factor. A 100x double click zoom is also available to further focus attention on the SOI and a 200x zoom factor is accomplished utilizing the mouse wheel.

Our on-the-fly drag and drop capability, supports demodulation processing by selecting the SOI center frequency and selecting the demodulation menu option. The Kestrel spectrum control group supports the ability to set the CF, SPAN, START and STOP frequencies manually.

The ability of the Differential Signal Analysis (DSA) feature to display any multiple location based, peak trace and highlight differences is enhanced by the Positional Zoom Control (PZC) functionality. One can easily switch between viewing entire ROI or a specific SOI with a 200x zoom factor. This functionality enables even minor noise-floor amplitude differences to be readily discerned.

Kestrel TSCM Professional Software’s navigation control options are highly evolved and consider every possible scenario providing many navigation options at the application level.

Floor Plan Import | LDSA | RDSA | TCP | DTAP

Exceed Detect Model (EDM)

Exceedence only signal detection found in the vast majority of so-called TSCM products, no longer meets any acceptable level of due-diligence within a modern moving target threat model. In-fact, exceedence only detection can only detect 40 to 60 percent of the signals presented across a wideband range of interest.

The Kestrel TSCM Professional Software utilizes enhanced techniques to overcome the limitations and our practice of implementing operator defined intelligent detection resources for the 1st and 2nd generation exceedence detection strategies.

The 3rd generational achievement includes an advanced Exceed Detect Model (EDM) and Burst Detect Model (BDM) that includes an advanced spectrum training mode that autonomously responds and updates the detection model based on the unique ambient radio-frequency spectrum over time.

The Kestrel TSCM Pro Software powerful combination of exceedence and burst detection parameters can be operator defined to work in tandem or independently to achieve results that are unique to the mission. The initial trained range is operator defined, relative to all available runtime traces, defined by the Kestrel Super Trace (KRT) count. This allows the software to build and algorithmically maintain a complex autonomous threat detection strategy.

Burst Detect Model (BDM)

The KLM feature supports an ultra-fast channelized burst detection capability that supports an integrated and operator defined capability within the Kestrel Learning Mode (KLM) feature.

The Burst Detect Model (BDM) can be fully integrated with the Exceed Detect Model (EDM) to capture signals that exceedance only models simply cannot capture, or the feature can be operated totally independently, as can the exceedance model.

The BDM is the missing link between exceedance and failure to detect modern communication signal events that simple cannot be detected within an exceedance only architecture. The ability to capture channelized burst events that are low to the noise floor are now visualized, captured, filtered and analyzed by a powerful algorithmic response.

Advanced Report Generator (ARG)

The ARG is a powerful standards-based Report Management System (RMS) that is expertly integrated into every aspect of the Kestrel TSCM Professional Software application allowing the technical operator to build custom proprietary reporting solutions with extreme versatility.

The ARG resource provides total control over the reporting process across the entire assignment as a template-based master report builder.

The document tree structure, intuitive drag and drop technology, automatically generator formatting tools, allow the technical operator to custom define sectional information and include cover page, logo, data tables, images, pictures, spectra plots, text, sections, headings and sub-headings, automatic page numbering, across any conceivable report design and format required.

Session Report Generator (SRG)

The SRG is fully integrated and allows for real-time, on-the-fly ad-hoc report generation in the standard Portable Document File (PDF) format.

The SRG allows the operator to capture plots of the RF Spectral Display (RSD) and Waterfall Display (WFD) data, for inclusion within the report. This resource provides the means to export a comprehensive RF based report that can be utilized as an attachment to a end-user report.

The Kestrel Project File (KPF), is an integral component of the overall project file management structure. It is also possible to export any of the threat or signal lists as a (.CSV) file format for editing, or analysis in third party productivity software.