"Polymath" wrote in message
ups.com...
I wonder if anyone has successfully converted a
thrown-away cell-phone into a spectrum analyser?

We would seem to have all the necessary components
in there for free - keyboard, graphical display,
post-demodulation DSP, Frequency Synthesizer,
RF good up to 1 GHz (2G5Hz if an ex-WCDMA unit)

Here would seem to be an opportunity to equip
all Radio Hams with a reasonably state-of-the-art
piece of test gear, that when coupled with an
IF generator would give us all a network analyser
into the bargain!


A few people are looking at turning one of the xilinx S3 (spartan3)
starter kits into spectrum analysers and logic analyser with a vga output.
http://www.xilinx.com/xlnx/xebiz/des...ey=DO-SPAR3-DK

http://www.fpga4fun.com/digitalscope.html
http://www.fpga4fun.com/board_flashy.html

Problem with a lot of the phone stuff is getting access to the chips pins
for programming
(if they had them in the first place).
Chips are factory programmed and not reprogrammable.