Data slicer vs. discriminator tap

[pokey]

Can someone clarify what each does exactly and what I would need one for as opposed to the other or both?

Thanks in advance.

 

[jellotor]

A discriminator tap is simply the unfiltered baseband audio from a scanner. A data slicer is the decoding circuit that allows you to decode control channel information from a discriminator tap for display in a program like trunker.