"These don't do anything on their own. You need to couple them with a spectrum analyser - another $1k+."
Yes, I knew that you'd have to hook them up to an RF / frequency analyzer of some sort. Each of these probes is really just a small antenna with specific characteristics, is it not?
"Generally if you put one of these near a switching power supply it'll go crazy"
Hmm... interesting information... the physicist in me says that perhaps there's a relationship here between electrical power and all sorts of frequencies at the same time... but that would be only a hypothesis without testing it... is it the electrical line that generates these conditions, or the conversion of power... some power supplies up the voltage, then convert it down (sort of like the way PWM supplies more power to a PC's fan by sending more pulses per unit time)... so maybe this is where all of the electrical noise (aka, many frequencies at the same time) are... I woudn't know, but I would think there are some experiments to be done in this area...
Anyway, super interesting!