Clear Waves

Clear Waves helps you coordinate wireless audio gear — wireless microphones, in-ear monitors and the like — by finding frequencies that are clear and that will not interfere with each other.

The intermodulation problem. When several transmitters are on at once, they mix and create extra phantom signals on other frequencies. Two microphones that each look fine on their own can still land an interfering product right on a third. Clear Waves does the intermodulation maths for you: it sweeps the band with an attached receiver and generates a set of intermodulation-compatible frequencies you can safely assign to your gear.

Clear Waves comes in two versions on the menu, one for each receiver. They look and work the same; this page covers both, and a box like the one below marks every place they differ.

Which receiver?

Clear Waves for RF Explorer — a calibrated analyzer. Levels are true dBm. The frequency range depends on the RF Explorer model and its active radio module.
Clear Waves for RTL-SDR — a low-cost USB receiver covering 24–1766 MHz. It is uncalibrated: levels are approximate (see Amplitudes below).

Getting started

Plug the receiver into the Wireless Toolbox, then open the tool from the menu.
Set the range with Start (MHz) and Stop (MHz) — between 5 and 150 MHz wide — and a Threshold (dBm).
Press Start (top-right). The spectrum fills in, and the frequency set is generated from it.

Amplitudes

RF Explorer. Levels are calibrated dBm.

RTL-SDR. The receiver is not factory-calibrated, so amplitudes are shown in dBm relative to a nominal −100 dBm noise floor — approximate, not a traceable measurement, but on the dBm scale that the RF Explorer reports and that Wireless Workbench and similar tools import. Use it to compare levels and to tell clear from occupied, not as an absolute power reading.

Spectrum Analysis tab

The live spectrum: Last Completed (green — the settled trace from the previous sweep), Current Scan (building, with a scan bar moving left to right), and a dashed Threshold line. Check Show MaxHold Trace to add Maxima (red — the highest level seen at each frequency).

Below the trace, a toggle switches the lower chart between Waterfall (a scrolling history of the sweeps) and Density (a persistence map of where the trace has been).

Intermod Analysis tab

The generated frequency set: each intermod-compatible frequency with its amplitude and a rolling history, coloured by how strict a test it passes:

Category	Meaning
Strictest	Clear of two-transmitter 3rd-order, three-transmitter 3rd-order and two-transmitter 5th-order products.
Moderate	Passes a less demanding test. Every Strictest frequency is also Moderate.
Lenient	Passes the least demanding test. Every Moderate frequency is also Lenient.

Control panel

Start / Stop (MHz) — the range, scanned at about 25 kHz resolution. Wireless-audio channels sit on 25 kHz boundaries.
Threshold (dBm) — the level above which a signal counts as a transmitter already on the air, and is excluded from the set.
Reset — returns to the original frequency set for the current range, and clears any imported bands.
Shuffle — tries an alternate arrangement.
Relative Score — a figure for comparing one arrangement with another: Strictest frequencies count most, Lenient least.
Lock Frequency Set — freezes the set. While it is checked, Reset, Shuffle and the Import and Remove menu items are switched off.
Show buttons — list the Frequency Set, the Channel Bands and the Lockout Bands, each with its count.

The box below the controls shows the attached receiver and the frequency range it supports.

Channel bands and lockout bands

You can steer the frequency set with two lists of bands, imported from the ⋮ menu as a CSV file with one band per line, written low-high in MHz:

Channel Bands — the set is restricted to these bands.
Lockout Bands — these bands are excluded from the set.

If the trace stops updating

If the receiver stops sending data while a scan is running, Clear Waves says so on the page. Switch the RF Explorer off and on with its own power switch, or unplug the RTL-SDR and plug it back in; then return to the menu and start the tool again.

Menu (⋮)

Save as PDF — see below.
Export Last Trace… / Export MaxHold Trace… — save the last completed trace, or the max-hold trace, as a file.
Export Smart Frequency Set… / Import Smart Frequency Set… — save the generated set, or load a saved one — for example to test an existing coordination at a new venue.
Import Channel Bands… / Import Lockout Bands… — see above. Remove Channel Bands / Remove Lockout Bands clear them.
About — version information.

The ☰ button (top-left) returns to the Wireless Toolbox menu.

Save as PDF

The ⋮ menu (top-right) has Save as PDF. It captures the tool exactly as shown — each view becomes its own page — and writes one file to your device’s Downloads folder, named with the tool and a timestamp, e.g. ClearWaves 2026-08-13 14.32.05.pdf. Every save is timestamped, so nothing is overwritten.