Airmagnet / Fluke SpectrumXT

 

If you've been under a rock or locked at the office then you may have missed the new Spectrum announcment offering from Airmagnet / Fluke. Its called the SpectrumXT.  I've always said, "An engineer without a spectrum card, is a carpenter without his hammer" - George Stefanick

Spectrum cards are $$$ and are often out of reach of some folks. AirMagnet made an early attempt with the Intel 5300 spectrum offering. I wasn't really a big fan of this offering, but customers who had a price point seen this as an attractive alternative to the higher price Cisco / Cognio offering. 

 

I haven't personally tested the SpectrumXT yet; I did say YET! But i already like the form factor, USB. If you haven't noticed PCs are being manufactured without PCMCIA slots making the Cognio offering a bit challenging to work with. Of course you can purchase the extension, but its pretty darn ugly and hangs like 10 feet out from your PC just waiting for something to hit your $3,000 card! 

And as you would expect, SpectrumXT integrates into Survey PRO and WiFi Analyzer PRO.

Early reviews from industry experts are favoring the SpectrumXT. 

 

Marcus Burton article @ CWNP
http://www.cwnp.com/community/articles/fluke_competes_with_cognio.html

AirMagnet Link
http://www.airmagnet.com/products/spectrum_xt/