IN Brief:
- RadSys units continuously compare local RF conditions with configured or regulatory thresholds.
- Connected models use Wi-Fi or LAN for central monitoring, logging, alerts, and remote configuration.
- Standalone variants operate without network communications for sensitive laboratory, defence, and secure environments.
Saelig has added RadGreen’s RadSys family of continuous RF monitors to its test and measurement range, targeting laboratories, manufacturing facilities, EMC environments, and locations where radio-frequency conditions need to be watched continuously rather than checked periodically with portable instruments.
The family includes connected and standalone configurations for indoor and outdoor use. Networked models can communicate over Wi-Fi or LAN to support centralised monitoring, historical logging, alerts, and remote configuration, while local versions remove external network communications for installations where connectivity is undesirable.
That distinction makes the product more than another RF instrument with a network socket. RadGreen and Saelig position RadSys as persistent monitoring equipment rather than a precision measurement platform: it remains installed at a location, watches conditions over time, and compares detected RF levels with configured or regulatory thresholds.
The RadSys600RF-OC, for example, combines an RF sensor and communications hardware in a weatherproof outdoor enclosure. Its network connection can transmit information to a PC or remote storage system, allowing several monitored locations to be supervised without requiring an operator to visit each sensor to collect readings.
Indoor connected models perform the same broad function without the outdoor enclosure. Thresholds can be configured through the associated system, while alerts can be raised when the monitored level crosses a defined limit. A local touchscreen can also be used with compatible models to display trends, configure thresholds, and provide visual or audible warning.
Standalone variants address another requirement. Removing Wi-Fi and LAN makes the monitoring point less dependent on external communications and can suit defence, secure laboratory, or other connection-sensitive environments. The device can still provide local information and alerts without becoming another node on the site’s network.
Continuous monitoring fills a different role from a spectrum analyser, field-strength meter, or calibrated measurement receiver. Those instruments provide engineers with detailed information when they are investigating an emission, characterising a transmitter, or performing formal tests, but they observe the environment only while the equipment is connected and operating.
A fixed monitor trades some of that analytical capability for persistence. That can make it useful when faults are intermittent: a damaged coaxial connector, degrading cable shield, defective dummy load, leaking RF chamber, or transmitter enabled unexpectedly may not be present during a scheduled inspection.
Instead, the installed sensor can flag that a threshold has been crossed and provide a record of when it occurred. An engineer can then bring in more capable test equipment to identify the signal, characterise its spectrum, or establish whether the event represents an equipment fault or a compliance concern.
EMI and EMC laboratories provide an obvious application. Unwanted RF energy entering or escaping a chamber can compromise a test without necessarily generating an obvious fault on the equipment under examination. Interference that appears only occasionally is particularly difficult to diagnose if nobody is measuring the environment when it occurs.
Production facilities create a similar problem for different reasons. RF transmitters and products may be switched repeatedly during functional test, alignment, calibration, or final inspection. A poor connector, shielding defect, software error, or faulty load can result in unexpected emissions, while production staff may have no reason to suspect a problem until another test begins to fail.
Continuous visibility can therefore be useful as another layer of manufacturing monitoring, but it should not be confused with formal conformity assessment. Saelig explicitly describes RadSys as monitoring rather than measurement equipment, so the system is best understood as an alert and fault-detection platform rather than a replacement for calibrated instrumentation required by a particular standard.
The same caution applies to occupational RF exposure. A permanently installed monitor can warn when a configured level has been exceeded and preserve historical information, but determining compliance in a specific workplace still depends on the applicable regulatory framework, measurement method, frequency range, and installation conditions.
RadSys units are designed for unattended operation and Saelig states that routine calibration is not required for their monitoring role. The useful distinction is therefore persistence: the equipment does not necessarily tell an RF engineer everything about an unexpected signal, but it can tell the engineer that the unexpected signal existed when nobody was standing beside a spectrum analyser.
