Linux: Wireless network scanners?

[Dave S]

Hey all,

I'm looking for a (simple, if possible) tool for Linux to scan for 
wireless networks and collect information about them over a short period 
of time - say a couple of hours or so.

The information I am looking to collect is mostly what channels are 
being used, and what the average signal strength is. I suppose network 
SSID (or some other way of identifying networks, like the router MAC 
address) might be useful too, but is not essential.

The reason I'm wanting to do this is to figure out what settings might 
be best for my own wireless network, in what seems like a fairly crowded 
bit of airspace in the place we've just moved to.

It's probably overkill and over-nerd - I can just pick some numbers and 
see what happens - but now I'm curious and wondering if such a tool exists?

I'm half thinking I could just bash something together using "iwlist 
scanning" repeatedly and collecting the results over my desired window 
of time.

Does anything like this exist? Kismet and Wireshark seem likely 
candidates, though also seem to be massive overkill (and more 
complicated than I can be bothered to figure out this week, although I 
only have a half-working sporadic internet connection at the moment). 
I'm really looking for something very simple indeed.

Just thought I'd ask here, because someone is bound to know.

Cheers!

~Dave