Alphanumeric Pagers

[chrismol1]

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 decode the pages?
thanks

 

[fineshot1]

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

 

[chrismol1]

Will newbies never learn to use GOOGLE or the WIKI for easy to find answers ?????????

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pager

When will you learn that this is a forum? and that we need people typing to learn from each other. just posting links is not a forum, there is already a site that posts links, its called google. it takes convos to make a forum
okay I read it now tell me what it means
anybody have any experience with this?
have a fire dept pager that works like this?

 

[fineshot1]

You could not possibly have read that entire article in 2 minutes.

Basicly alphanumeric pages go out as data in specific formats which are discussed in this wiki article.

They can be on a variety of frequencies - does not matter which.

 

[k2ns]

Pagers

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.

 

[fineshot1]

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.

I 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.

 

[obijohn]

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.

 

[chrismol1]

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.

thank you, so I would need this capcode before recieving any pages from dispatch?

I 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.

I can tell that someone ate some soggy Wheaties this morning

 

[pm1072]

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.

 

[chrismol1]

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.

thank you!

How is a capcode alphanumeric pager different from a voice pager?
Is the 7 digit number like the quik-call II tones?
anyway to decode the capcode/7digit number?

 

[Jay911]

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.

 

[smason]

I'm a computer geek, and I used to e on a server team that was on call 7x24
When it wasn't my week to have the pager, I used to like to keep tabs on what was going on, so I had my pro 2006 plugged in to my laptop running a pocsag program. I determined the pager ID by paging myself, and was able to watch all the pages to that pager. I forget the name of the program, this was a good 10 years ago now. I'll see if I have it kicking around still.

Edit: looking at the link Jay provided, it looks like it was pocflex that I was using.

 

[DaveNF2G]

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.

 

[chrismol1]

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.

thank you Dave for letting us know the legal issue. and yes this will be for public safety

 

[1alpha]

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.

Would this work with the PSR500 @ 600?

 

[Jay911]

If you're asking about the data-out feature that I'm told those scanners have, I don't think that they'll work. Someone more familiar with the GRE radios will have to answer, but from what I've heard of those scanners' behavior with programs like Unitrunker, which also needs a discriminator tap, I don't think that the data-out feature works the way a tap does.

 

[W4KRR]

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.

 

[ofd8001]

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.

 

[1alpha]

They sure use them here. Thanks for the info. I got one program working with a line jack. Doesnt look the same as we get on our pagers.

 

[chrismol1]

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.

Thanks for the info!

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.

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.