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 Post subject: Re: POCSAG & PDW v2.53
PostPosted: Thu Jun 18, 2009 8:08 pm 
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Take a look at 453.900 for SEA paging.


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PostPosted: Thu Jun 18, 2009 10:44 pm 
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Location: Bellevue, WA
Woot. My PRO-2006 has been modified successfully. Took about 2 hours total. I did this before about 15 years ago but I've learned patience since then.

I had an older computer microphone - those cheap ones - that just has the microphone attached to a monitor, etc. Cut the wire from that and used the plug and cable. The wire fits perfectly thru the cover hole to the backup battery compartment. Nice and neat! :)

Very interesting stuff so far. It's kind of surprisingly how personal these messages can get... for being so short.

931.2125 seems to have mostly UW Hospital traffic. The POCSAG decoding isn't perfect but it's not bad. I'm getting scattered random traffic as well.

Ooh, I just got a Fire hit. Duvall fire with address, etc. Interesting...

This channel seems to be FLEX 3200 and POCSAG 1200 although PDW 2.53 doesn't seem to track the POCSAG stats correctly.

I'm thinking of just putting all of the known pager freqs into the scanner and letting the thing run like crazy.

I punched in 868.775 and Trunk88 lit up like a x-mas tree! I was seeing a ton of control channel data flood into my computer. Decoding accuracy was 100%...

Unitrunker also works now 100% but the software seems a bit clunky to me.


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 Post subject: Re: POCSAG & PDW v2.53
PostPosted: Thu Jun 18, 2009 10:57 pm 
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Location: Bellevue, WA
Follow-up:

Is there a reason why the decode is not 100%? Seems like the signal strength is strong and about 50% (some of the bigger messages) get thru perfectly. It seems like the other 50% contain partial errors. I've set the audio and it seems to be a good level.

Is this just normal when using a soundcard and D-TAP? Do you need a slicer for the best decoding?


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 Post subject: Re: POCSAG & PDW v2.53
PostPosted: Fri Jun 19, 2009 12:38 am 
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Location: Bellevue, WA
Update:

Okay, I was getting too many errors so I pulled apart my little add-in module I used for the RC filter. Turns out that Mr Decimal is a pain in the ass - either that or I forgot how to count. ;)

Got the right value of R&C now and it's working much better. It seems a lot more stable and far less errors. Also, the STATS monitor is recognizing the POCSAG 1200 signals now! So I think it's working much better now.


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 Post subject: Re: POCSAG & PDW v2.53
PostPosted: Fri Jun 19, 2009 10:28 am 
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Location: here and there
yea its all about the proper modulation of the data with sound cards.

So if your getting failures play with volume (as your resistor did) When set right I have ran PDW for months at a time with little to no failures.

here are some tricks, PDW will allow you do watch for keywords and deal with the data caught, older versions of PDW actually work "better" for some very malicious reasons. (in terms of data handling)

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 Post subject: Re: POCSAG & PDW v2.53
PostPosted: Fri Jun 19, 2009 1:02 pm 
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Location: Bellevue, WA
Just to clarify, I'm getting POCSAG @ 100% ... it's the FLEX 3200 that is very flakey. The author of PDW claims that with d-tap it's only about 70% possible ... I'm more like 35%... lol, but yes I can make out most messages by the key words that get thru.

I guess the Flex 6400 data is impossible to decode without the slicer.


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 Post subject: Re: POCSAG & PDW v2.53
PostPosted: Fri Jun 19, 2009 3:52 pm 
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Location: here and there
i would say keep playing with stuff, I usta live right near a page tower and RF quality aside I was able to decode everything with little to no errors, using a SoundBlaster Live and a BC15 D-tap

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If I had an antenna, I would; but I can only transmit on 160 meters.
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 Post subject: Re: POCSAG & PDW v2.53
PostPosted: Sat Jun 20, 2009 1:56 am 
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Location: Bellevue, WA
Feel like a dork now. I tried my desktop machine to see if the other soundcard would help. Discovered the "Discriminator" option under the interface. I was using just Earphone option. It's flawless now for any method. :D


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 Post subject: Re: POCSAG & PDW v2.53
PostPosted: Sun Jun 21, 2009 6:59 am 
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Firedawg, (and anyone else) when you say "you have to set the audio just right" could you give me a hint? I'm all set up with PDW 2.53 and audio connection to the soundcard. I get the title bar to indicate a FLEX signal and what cycle and how many frames, but no decode. Is there a "sweet spot" for the volume control?
J


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 Post subject: Re: POCSAG & PDW v2.53
PostPosted: Sun Jun 21, 2009 7:44 am 
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The volume can be a little touchy because its very easy to overdrive the soundcard input. In most cases I've found its best to set the volume control around 20% then make any further adjustments with the windows soundcard volume (from the control panel or right-click the speaker icon on the lower right).


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 Post subject: Re: POCSAG & PDW v2.53
PostPosted: Sun Jun 21, 2009 7:49 am 
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Location: here and there
also make sure you have the ... "Discovered the "Discriminator" option under the interface"

anything else sets EQ and other sound options to compensate for other factors, with the D-TAP you want no compensation since your getting raw audio.

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If I had an antenna, I would; but I can only transmit on 160 meters.
_____
DE K7MHI


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 Post subject: Re: POCSAG & PDW v2.53
PostPosted: Sun Jun 21, 2009 8:13 am 
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Posts: 415
Is it a coincidence that SFD Digital Paging Freq. is 453.900 when there old Frequencies used to be 453.600, 453.700 and 453.800 ?

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 Post subject: Re: POCSAG & PDW v2.53
PostPosted: Sun Jun 21, 2009 11:44 am 
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FireDawg89 wrote:
Is it a coincidence that SFD Digital Paging Freq. is 453.900 when there old Frequencies used to be 453.600, 453.700 and 453.800 ?


In later years, .900 was an SFD freq.


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 Post subject: Re: POCSAG & PDW v2.53
PostPosted: Sun Jun 21, 2009 12:07 pm 
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Location: Not Biloxi
I use stuff from these guys.

http://www.wipath.com/

The WDT2000 is cool. We also use another product that isn't listed. It can only be purchased by gov't

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 Post subject: Re: POCSAG & PDW v2.53
PostPosted: Sun Jun 21, 2009 1:46 pm 
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Posts: 2645
Location: Bellevue, WA
I see the WDT2000 has Mobitex. It is used in this area much? Any frequencies of interest?


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