Find unknown broadcast frequency

I'm very new to this stuff, so please excuse the dumb sounding terminology.

I'm trying to capture the data from my elster smart hydro meter. How can I find its frequency (I know its between 902 and 928 MHz and I think there is frequency hopping)? I have an rtlsdr dongle (2 MHz sample rate) and gnuradio and a raspberrypi.

One idea I had was to listen for an hour on bands:

Listen on 902 for an hour
Listen on 904 for an hour
...
Listen on 928 for an hour


Then, I would have to record only when a "blip" in frequency or amplitude happens. This way, I would have a few blips and I could then try to analyze them.

Does this sound sensible?

Perhaps there is a device that helps with this?

• How many bands you have? How much is the dwell time on band? Is the meaning of 2 MHz sample that you could switch from frequency to other in this rate? Specifying better the signal could allow you to have a better "design" of the scan. I have seen the number 0,5 second for a certain meter - more than enough for a smart single scan. – Moti Dec 14 '15 at 19:12
• Did you do a google search for the meter or look at whats written on the meter? A quick search gives this link. – Batman Dec 14 '15 at 21:04
• i just did a search and found this: industrycanada.co/number.php?ic=4557A-REXU&id=161862 - so again it just seems like the possible range is 902 to 928, no? – Nick Lang Dec 14 '15 at 23:48
• i'm not sure what you mean by bands. the way I see it (in my very limited knowledge) is that my rtlsdr has a sample rate of about 2 MHz, this means I can break up 928-902=26 so 26/2 = 13, so there are 13 "bands" of 2 MHz, correct?? – Nick Lang Dec 14 '15 at 23:49