POCSAG decoder and Email

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CT22

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Anyone know of a program that can decode POCSAG or FLEX with filtering and then forward the filtered messages to email?
 

Voyager

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spatch713 said:
Anyone know of a program that can decode POCSAG or FLEX with filtering and then forward the filtered messages to email?

Be careful here. It is illegal to decode pager transmissions in the USA. You don't want to admit on a public forum that you intend to break the law, do you?

Joe M.
 

CT22

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... does someone always have to bring up legality of monitoring? Where in my original message did I state I was going to be using the software myself, monitoring restircted frequencies/data or commit a crime.

The question was does anyone know of a program that decodes POCSAG or FLEX with filtering that can then export received messages to email?

By the way Hams use POCSAG and can decode it - that is not illegal

Shawn N1TGE (that means for ham purposes its ok for licensed hams)
 

mancow

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winflex

I don't know about email but it will definitely do flex, pocsag, and filtering.
 

CT22

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Thanks, I already looked into that. I am really looking for the exporting of the filtered messages to email... then I can have the messages I want to decode go to my cell phone and work pager as well.
 
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DaveNF2G

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If I remember correctly, Winflex can trigger another application, which could include a script to export filtered messages to an email program. Take a close look at the docs.

As for the legalities, decoding the modes used by pagers is not illegal. Monitoring commercial paging services (except tone-only transmissions) violates ECPA.
 

CT22

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Thanks everyone for your input. I found that the program I am using now PDW V2.05 now has had mulitple updates (current version is 2.13) that supports this exact feature I was looking for. It decodes both paging formats as well as a few others.
 

Voyager

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spatch713 said:
... does someone always have to bring up legality of monitoring? Where in my original message did I state I was going to be using the software myself, monitoring restircted frequencies/data or commit a crime.

Because SO MANY people are ignorant of that law - that's why.

How many people ask questions for others without stating so?

Also, note that I NEVER accused you of anything. I suggested being careful (sound advice), stated that monitoring pagers was not legal in the USA (a fact), and asked a question.

Why are you being so defensive? :wink:

Shawn N1TGE (that means for ham purposes its ok for licensed hams)

Your original post made no such mention - it merely indicated that you were in the USA and you stated you wanted to decode pager transmissions.

Joe M.
 

kingpin

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Being a ham, I have an interest in this. I've done work with the pocsag encoding and decoding years back but flex encoding/decoding was dang near impossibleback when. With this winflex progrm, do you need a data slicer?
 

Joseph11

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PDW is the best paging decoder I've ever seen. You can use your sound card and I've heard that you can decode up to 1200 baud POCSAG using a non-discriminator tapped scanner.
 

USAPatriot

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FWIW, discussing subjects that are illegal in practice is not illegal in and of itself so long as you don't enter into some sort of conspiracy to commit such a "crime". Keeping it theoretical is more than merely legal: It's specifically protected under the law.

Were it not otherwise, most of the people on the internet would be locked up. -Rod-
 

Voyager

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BTW, what methods are people using for encoding the POCSAG or FLEX transmissions? I'm not aware of any repeater controllers that have that feature. (as long as we are talking about ham use)

Joe M.
 

kingpin

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I used poc32 for my pocsag work which does pocsag only and uses the sound card. Very happy with that program but I've always knows flex decoding to require a data slicer. I have built one but had problems getting it working.
 
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DaveNF2G

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Decoding FLEX can be done with a 2-level (Trunker-style) slicer, but at least half of the data are lost. A 4-level slicer allows capture and decoding of all 4 phases of a FLEX signal.
 

CT22

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The keying of the transmitter has always seemed to be a pain for me. I have used some Zetron stuff and it works well. Going back to that guy who claims monitoring pagers is illegal in the US.. you are right but again you dont understand the use of this in the Ham bands where it is legal as you can see from the others on here.

Using a discriminator tap off of a receiver I have successfully decoded FLEX upto 1600bps using a PC soundcard. Just make sure you quiet the signal of the discriminator tap with shielded wire and put a small cap between the signal and ground. This seemed to make a lot of difference. I hid all of this inside the receiver. Also, one thing that people forget is stereo/mono audio connections. The jack I installed on the receiver is 1/8" mono so make sure the connector you intend on plugging into the soundcard is mono with a jumper so that the data goes to both left and right channels. That helped me out as well.

I sold my data slicer to a regional dispatch center and have been too lazy to build another one. I would like to see how well it would work with the discriminator tap this time instead of line audio. Too much of a pain finding the sweat spot. Send page... run to receiver and twist audio pot over and over! I dont miss that.

You could build one yourself and tune around 2m or 70cm. You might find somthing depending on where you are. Here where I am in CT I dont believe anyone is really using this but thats what ham radio is all about. Experimenting.
 
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