Universal M-400 Decoder Ver.1.02

[N1SQB]

Hello All!
Just picked up a mint condition Universal M-400 decoder for a friend. Paid $60 with the manual and original wall wart. For those not familiar with it, here is a link for more info: http://www.universal-radio.com/catal...ders/m400.html
He is going to use it for acars. He asked about the other modes that the unit is capable of decoding. Now, I know about pocsag and golay digital paging modes. My question is this, is this type of decoder any good for HF or shortwave data decoding given todays' modern digital modes? Any of these modes still in use? This is an area I am not really familiar with and would like some direction on this to guide my friend.

Manny

[ka3jjz]

It has some limited usefulness. Sitor-B is still used by USCG stations for weather, FAX is still fairly popular (although you won't see many stations use this mode for news photos anymore - it's pretty rare - they've all moved to more reliable comms), Baudot RTTY is still used once in a while by Aero stations (apart from hams, of course). FEC-A and SWED-ARQ are hardly reported anymore.

FAX use is almost primarily used for weather charts; every so often you see reports of Japanese press, but it's pretty rare...

Mike

[N1SQB]

Im not really surprised considering the age of the unit. Well, it will serve him well for ACARS at least.

Thanks Mike!

Manny