Design, Implementation and Testing of a 24 GHz 5G Band RFI Detection Payload for a Pocketqube

Due to the recent licensing of the 26 GHz 5G communications bands, the passive microeaves Remote Sensing community is concerned that spurious out-of-band emissions could interfere with the measurements acquired in the 23.8 GHz water vapor resonance band. For this reason, the Frequency Allocations in Remote Sensing (FARS) Technical Committee from the IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society (GRSS) has procured the development of a RFI monitoring payload to detect possible interferences in the 24 to 25 GHz band. This payload is compatible with the PocketQubes being developed in the framework of the "IEEE GRSS Open PocketQube Kit" educational initiative, and it will be used to measure and determine the occurrence of possible interferences close to the 23.8 GHz water vapor band. This work presents the design, implementation and testing of the 24 to 25 GHz RFI monitoring payload designed for a 1P PocketQube.