Jared Boone is what you would call a x10 hardware hacker :) He was the co father of HackRF along with Michael Ossmann.

Here demonstrating early prototypes a full year before HackRF Kickstarter, including ridiculously cook huge spectrum analyzer [HackRF update with Jared Boone, Hak5 1417.1 - Hack Across America 2013] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l42mZ7BDB9A

Analog is tough enough. This is RF, even more difficult!