Read the spectrum and waterfall

The spectrum is an immediate view of signal power. The waterfall adds time, which helps you identify activity and drift.

Read signal level

Peaks above the noise floor usually indicate signals. A narrow fixed line can be a carrier, a birdie, or center-frequency interference.

Use the receiver passband overlay to see which energy enters the demodulator. Tune or change the passband when adjacent energy enters it.

Change the view

Open Settings > Spectrum to set the display FLOOR and RANGE, the waterfall ROW RATE and ROW HEIGHT, and the VIEW SPAN.

The same page sets trace SMOOTHING, peak HOLD, and the waterfall PALETTE.

Pan and zoom

Zoom changes the visible part of the captured span. Pan moves that view without changing the SDR source.

Keep the tuned passband inside the source span. Retune the source center when you need signals outside the current capture.

Select an FFT window

The WINDOW selection changes the balance between frequency selectivity and the visibility of weak signals beside strong ones. Radio Bench uses a fixed analysis resolution, so there is no FFT size control.