decoding digital signals help

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w1av

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Hello....long time ham, but out of it for YEARS. I am now retired and like to fool with radio and computer. Just monitoring really as I have long since sold all my radio gear. I would like some basic info on what types of digital signals I can tune into on my scanner and decode on computer. So far I have been able to monitor APRS using a program called "DIREWOLF". Seems to work well but not very exciting. I also have had luck monitoring ACARS (131.55) using "ACARSD" software. Lastly and most boringly, I found a program that lets you monitor ACARS as well as POCSAG and weird pager transmissions. There is a VERY POWERFUL pager on 152.600 that must be local. Nothing to write home about as far as monitoring that. Are there OTHER SIGNALS out there that I could tune in to and what software would be good? I am using soundcard setup. I am not sure regular packet freq's are going to have much on there these days. What about weather maps the you can intercept on VHF? I seem to be chasing my tail Googling all this so thats why I came here. I am unfamiliar with modern amateur radio digital modes. I dropped out of the hobby back around 2001 and sold my station. I am using a homebrew vertical dipole up about 20' connected to a Bearcat BC700A scanner. Computer running Win 10 and Linux. I live in a suburban area with decent elevation.
 

ka3jjz

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Well let's start by breaking down the various digi modes out there, and there are a LOT of them now. Take a look here as an introduction

HF Digital Amateur Radio - The RadioReference Wiki

There's lots more software - some free, some not - that you can use with a soundcard. FLDigi and MultiPSK are very popular, but there are others. In some cases, you will undoubtedly find that software devoted to a particular mode works better than a multi mode package, but this does, at least in part, depend on your soundcard, and it's next to impossible to be accurate with any generalization

Weather charts on VHF? Sure, but as we're talking about HF, there are numerous such stations here, too. Both FLDigi and MultiPSK handles FAX

Now for the interface - sure, you can get the Tigertronics Signalink, but you can also put something together yourself. This website has a fair amount of useful information on that subject

https://www.w0btu.com/wm2u/interface.html

Time to draw a nice big tall cool one, sit down and study. This will take awhile

Mike
 

ka3jjz

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Hmmm...137 Mhz WEFAX has nothing to do with ham digital (ahem)...but the comment on the ISS sending SSTV from time to time is correct. The links to a lot of software can be found in the Digital Amateur Radio article I gave earlier (MM-SSTV is very popular, and free). As for when the tests are, you can check the ARISS home page (below) or the Southgate ARC in the UK often has these announcements...

Home

Mike
 
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