frame error

[W1JOP]

if someone would not mind as I am new to this type of device, what is Frame Error Rate? I know 0 is generally what you want but in relation to my G4 pager I am trying to figure out something, I have two sites near me, both with pretty much the same signal strength and a RSSI of around 90, one of the sites Frame Error Rate is 0.0 while the other site can be as high at 6.7 but can hover as low as 2.1


The site with the high Frame Error Rate the audio is choppy and somewhat garbled, the Site with zero Frame Error Rate with the same signal strength is crystal clear


So how do I tackle this Frame rate error? is it something with the unication firmware? or is it most likely something out of my control? IE: this tower is not working right

 

[N6ML]

It basically means that the stream of digital data decoded in the pager contains sequences that are invalid, probably due to some of the data being lost or corrupted, most likely due to noise. As usual for a noise issue, try to move your antenna away from noise sources and to a place where it has the best view possible of the transmitter, or get a better antenna. The RSSI indication in the Gx pagers isn't really overly useful, TBH.

 

[W1JOP]

I am limited to a mobile antenna setup unfortunately, at the moment I am using a VHF/UHF 800Mhz antenna I got off amazon for 15, I am using the amplified charger so I can put any kinda mobile antenna I want on it, I can do BNC or SO239 but I have access to other connectors and adapters so that's not an issue, but what 800Mhz single band antenna would you recommend? Multi band antennas are great but single band antennas tend to work better if you're only going to be using it for one band

 

[W1JOP]

and maybe you can tell, I am a ham radio operator, and this is set up in my shack so my guess is my 15-dollar cheap antenna is not goanna cut it, I am also HOA so outside is not an optiopn

 

[K9KLC]

Which antenna did you get with the amplified charger? They apparently shipped with 2 different kinds, one stupid long put your eye out whip and the other telescoping. You can try varying the length of the telescoping one, I found it worked better shortened some vs all the way up on the 800 system here.

I also used a remtronix back of the set 800 one with a swivel so it would work on a desktop device, it worked great also. Usually better than the telescoping one.

I've tried several external magnetic ones the problem is, if the coax is too long on a questionable antenna, you get too much loss from that and honestly it didn't work any better than the back of the charger remtronix I tried.

As a ham you know that at 800 MHz it doesn't take a big antenna to have a lot of gain, perhaps even a small yagi, mounted on a short tripod inside the shack may work aimed at the system you're trying to get. Again, keep the coax short as you can to avoid any losses there.

Also vary the places you put the charger even in the same room, I found here, moving it from one end of the room to another or, even one end of a table to the other, I can get different signal levels on one of the systems I occasionally monitor.

 

[W1JOP]

did what you suggested, moved the thing around till i got 0.0-0.2 and now things are clear, its other side of the desk away from the ham equipment, all my equipment is shielded and properly grounded but as we all know RF and electrical noise no matter how good and clean your setup is it still can be hard to control

 

[K9KLC]

did what you suggested, moved the thing around till i got 0.0-0.2 and now things are clear, its other side of the desk away from the ham equipment, all my equipment is shielded and properly grounded but as we all know RF and electrical noise no matter how good and clean your setup is it still can be hard to control

Glad it's working better. No matter the station conditions, things leak RF on occasion. I guess the best one is a neighbor of mine could not talk on 6 meters due to a 10-20 db over S9 noise level. Narrowed it down to a multi bank charger he had there for some of his radios. The minute that got unplugged, poof it was all gone.