How do alphanumeric pagers work? as a Fire or EMS pager I'm used to Motorola Minitor Voice pagers
If I know the frequency of the dispatch, and have a motorola advisor, what else do I need to get the pages?
thanks
Will newbies never learn to use GOOGLE or the WIKI for easy to find answers ?????????
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pager
Will newbies never learn to use GOOGLE or the WIKI for easy to find answers ?????????
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pager
The link you posted tells you how they work--It does not tell you how to decode them without using a pager---that's what the original poster was asking for.
How do alphanumeric pagers work? as a Fire or EMS pager I'm used to Motorola Minitor Voice pagers
If I know the frequency of the dispatch, and have a motorola advisor, what else do I need to get the pages?
thanks
You need to know the "capcode" of the pager. In digital that would be the 7? digit unique code that pager
is programmed for. Then you also need the type of paging format that is being transmitted.
i.e. POCSAC 512 or 1200 baud data speed. I'm pretty sure the advisor didn't decode GOLAY pages.
Also, the Advisor requires a 1st oscillator crystal change if it not on your frequency. The "channel"
is not programmable.
I can tell that someone ate some soggy Wheaties this morningI answered the OP's original question(see below) by posting the wiki link.
"How do alphanumeric pagers work?"
For paging transmitter intercepts you will have to consult someone else.
thank you, so I would need this capcode before recieving any pages from dispatch?
I can tell that someone ate some soggy Wheaties this morning
most likely the capcode is located on the back of your pager, if you turn it over and if it has labels on it, one of them has a 7 digit number printer on it. The only way it won't be there is perhaps if the unit's been recased, purchased from a place that reconditions them for public safety use. hope this helps you out.
Just to clarify the legal issue:
Intercepting paging transmissions made by entities that are licensed by the FCC under Part 22 or Part 25 of the Regulations is a violation of Federal law (ECPA). However, decoding pages sent over public safety or government frequencies does not fall under that prohibition.
The program PDW will do all you need so long as you have a scanner with a discriminator tap. You will have to wire up the discriminator tap yourself (which involves cracking open the scanner case and soldering an audio cable to points on the printed circuit board). With PDW, you connect the tap to the sound card with an audio patch cable, and off you go.
http://www.gsm-antennes.nl/PDW/
Some (many) people will get into a royal froth if you mention decoding pager transmissions as I believe it's illegal in the United States. Those of us in other countries are not subject to that law, however.
Thanks for the info!The legalities aside, there is (or used to be) a program called "Winflex" that would allow you to monitor alphanumeric pagers. You needed a scanner with a discriminator tap, programmed to whatever frequency was used by the pager. You could program in just the capcodes you were interested in intercepting, and it would ignore all the others. I haven't used it in quite a while, and I don't know if it's available anymore.
Yeh, I got word here from a friend of mine who is a fireman that there might be alphanumeric pagers being put in place for our new radio system in the county.Generally speaking, most fire departments I know of do not use alpha-numeric pagers as a primary means of notifying their folks about emergencies. Unless the paging system is owned and operated by the actual governmental entity, this type of paging does not comply with the applicable national standards. That's because the fire department has no control over the maintenance and repair of the system.