Small But Mighty: The Tiny SA Goes To War

5Gmb...M2Ub

4 Jan 2026

151

The Tiny Spectrum Analyzer has found a new life on the frontlines

Get your own TinySA at a discounted price by visiting this link.

The drone war has been one of the most rapidly shifting parts of the Russia-Ukraine war, and it’s something that we’ve spent plenty of time writing about in previous articles. It’s not just drones, though. The entire electromagnetic spectrum has played a huge role in the conflict to date, and it’s reasonable to assume that this will continue for some time to come.

So, we see new drone systems introduced, new frequency ranges for command and telemetry and of course, the evolution and development of the ever-reliable fibre optic systems to help counter advances in electronic warfare.

Often, we need to trawl social media to look for clues on new developments, which can be a pretty lengthy task. Sometimes though, we get lucky and find good resources that have been released into the public domain.

Today is one of those days. The Ukrainian Armed Forces have released a handbook that focuses on the usage of the Tiny Spectrum Analyser (Tiny SA) on the front lines. Also, with no restrictions on distribution and an acceptable gap between release and now, we can check it out and write all about it without giving up anything secret.

Titled “Practical Application of The Spectrum Analyzer Tiny SA Ultra”, there should be plenty of interesting nuggets inside.

What Does It Do

One of the coolest things about the evolution of modern electronics is the increase in affordable and useful test equipment. With Spectrum Analyzers typically costing thousands of dollars, the Tiny SA aims to upend the market by providing a full Spectrum Analyser with a frequency range of 100khz-7GHz for less than $150.00USD.

An incredibly useful tool for analysis and learning purposes, a spectrum analyzer is used to measure and visualise signals across a range of frequencies, showing how signal power is distributed over the electromagnetic spectrum.

Instead of displaying a signal over time, it presents frequency on the horizontal axis and amplitude on the vertical axis, allowing users to identify transmissions, interference, noise, and spectral characteristics such as bandwidth, harmonics, and spurious emissions.
As you might imagine, tools like these play an essential role, not only in design and engineering, but for military and electronic warfare systems. The ability to visually “see” and identify invisible RF signals is a key part of what electronic warfare is all about. So, it’ll be interesting to see how it stacks up with some field stress testing.

It’s also worth mentioning that the Ukrainians have also compiled some specific Ukrainian-language firmware for the device to help get the best out of it.

The Documents

A dual-language document means that it’s available to both English and Ukrainian speakers. The document is just 64 pages in its entirety, giving us only 32 pages of English content to review. Despite this, there’s still some good information in there, and while it’s no surprise here, the Tiny SA does, in fact, get some pretty good feedback.

A quick look at the screen capture from the resource material above shows that the Tiny has been used in all manner of roles that cover everything from drone detection and electronic warfare identification right through to monitoring satellite signals and even signal triangulation.

It backs these claims up with some screen captures inside the release, and it’s these images that are the most interesting, as they are able to give us a snapshot of how things might look on the battlefield. As you might imagine, some of these images look rather busy.

If you’re new to the world of signals intelligence, it’s worth spending the time to peruse documents like these. Not only will you get an idea of the electronic order of battle, but you can also start to develop a feel for some of the strategies that are in play to help with signal identification as well.

One of the original passive sensors, spectrum analyzers are capable of sucking up huge amounts of data that is particularly useful for military purposes.

Electronic Warfare

To get a feel for what’s happening, let’s focus on a few specific images to keep things easy to follow. Let’s start with this one first. It’s a DJI Mavic signal that's at a distance of around 500 metres, according to the source.

The image shows us a nice, strong signal received on 2.4232GHz. Adjacent to that, we see little in the way of interference and little in the way of electronic warfare. It’s also clear, there’s no mistaking that on the display. Although it’s worth pointing out that, as an off-the-shelf photography drone, there’s little need or requirement for changing that.

In comparison, this Lancet signal provides a much different visual than the first. Being an 868MHz signal means that the propagation characteristics are much more favourable, and the military design of the Lancet means that it uses the spectrum much more efficiently. Despite this, and the overall weak nature of the signal, the Tiny SA was able to detect the Lancet at more than 20km range. Not a bad effort for what looks like little more than a toy.

We’ve spoken in detail before about the jamming of GPS across Europe in relation to this conflict, but seeing it on the spectrum is really something. There’s no spoofing of this signal, just a strong peak right over the top of where the usual GPS signal should be.

If you want to learn more about GPS jamming, visit this link.

Antennas & Deployment

Antenna design is simple and as expected. There’s the PCB style antennas for quick and easy deployment, albeit at the cost of sensitivity, while the good old Yagi makes the grade as an effective long-range antenna that performs acceptably for signal hunting purposes.

The article does reference multi-antenna systems for both rangefinding and triangulation, but as you’d expect, there is little expanded information regarding these types of systems. Some things must remain secret, after all.

One of the strongest advantages of the Tiny SA is its small size and ease of deployment. A preamp, anntenna and a powerbank are about all you’ll need to take it into the field.

Opinion

In terms of analysis, today was pretty basic. There was no in-depth signal breakdown, and no classified information was harmed in the making of this article. However, it’s still worth writing about for a few reasons, as even a surface-level review can still contribute plenty to the discussion.

If there was ever proof needed to substantiate that this is a drone war, it’s probably going to come in the form of a spectrum analyser screenshot. However, it also goes to show how rapidly the sands of modern warfare are shifting. What was once the sole domain of defence contractors and government workers is changing to become more flexible, more modular and more importantly, cheaper.

What's the real secret sauce, though?

A literal army of coders, makers and radio nerds helping to prototype new systems and using off-the-shelf hardware like the Tiny SA to reshape the battlefield.

With design and manufacturing now easier than ever, every small industrial facility has the potential to produce and prototype cutting-edge weapons. The barrier to entry has now been significantly reduced, and for drone construction, detection and counter-measure development, it’s never been easier.

If you’d like to support Ukrainian independence, visit the official United24 website.

Learn more about how the radio spectrum relates to cyber and the modern battlefield with Radio Hackers.

View the source material for this article by visiting this link.

If you found this article insightful, informative, or entertaining, we kindly encourage you to show your support. Clapping for this article not only lets the author know that their work is appreciated but also helps boost its visibility to others who might benefit from it.

🌟 Enjoyed this article? Join the community! 🌟

📢 Join our OSINT Telegram channel for exclusive updates or

📢 Follow our crypto Telegram for the latest giveaways

🐦 Follow us on Twitter and

🟦 We’re now on Bluesky!

🔗 Articles we think you’ll like: