Patent ID: 8666322

Claim:
A system for determining a distance and magnitude to one or more unknown passive intermodulation (PIM) sources associated with a network under test, comprising: a scalar PIM measuring instrument having an output frequency that is systematically changeable to produce a series of response signals of varying frequency; a reference PIM source adapted to be arranged between the network under test and the scalar PIM measuring instrument and configured to introduce a reflected signal to the scalar PIM measuring instrument in response to the output frequency; the scalar PIM measuring instrument further including at least one processor, a non-transitory computer readable medium including instructions for performing data processing algorithms using the at least one processor, the data processing algorithms allowing the extraction of distance and magnitude information about the unknown PIM sources located along the network under test from scalar data received by the scalar PIM measuring instrument, wherein the scalar data received by the scalar PIM measuring instrument represents a combination of signals from the unknown PIM sources and the reference PIM source; and wherein the reference PIM source has a magnitude and distance from a detector of the scalar PIM measuring instrument that is substantially known when the reference PIM source is arranged between the network under test and the scalar PIM measuring instrument.