Using a Uniden scanner with PDW

[ArmstrongCountyFeed]

Hello Folks,

I have a specific question to ask. I am utilizing a UHF frequency and I am decoding paging tones (POCSAG 512) with PDW. My issue is, I cannot determine if PDW doesn't like the audio output given by the BCT15 (Not the 15X) or if the scanner has an internal issue.

I noticed that the recording port is dead, no audio will come out of it whatsoever.

The ext. spk port has audio that is coming out, but seems rather crystal-clear.

PDW will not pick up ANY sort of tones... I am stumped.

For giggles, I connected a RadioShack scanner (Pro 97 handheld) up in a lab environment with a small Baofeng on a GMRS frequency using VOX to the POCSAG output of the Wikipedia sample. It didn't work... but PDW was able to define what type of POCSAG tone it was (the Baofeng's AGC rate-limited the actual data tone).

I am looking for a simple solution to decode pager tones without an SDR dongle, just for my own sake. Do you think the BCT15 has an internal issue, or do you think the Discriminator Tap mod would solve my issue?

 

[flythunderbird]

Is the signal indicator in the upper right-hand corner moving at all when receiving signals from the BCT15? If it's not moving, then PDW is not detecting any signal. If it is moving, what is the RX quality decode percentage below the signal indicator?

The generally-recommended solution is to use a discriminator tap. That being said, I've been successful using the headphone/speaker jacks on RadioShack/GRE and Uniden scanners feeding the line-in jack on my PC. Here's my setup (I use Windows 7, but any other version will be similar):

In Windows Control Panel, Sound, Recording tab:

1. Click Line In, then click Properties
2. General tab, set device usage dropdown to "Use this device (enable)"
3. Levels tab, set slider to 100%
4. Advanced tab, set default format at 2 channel, 16 bit, 44100 Hz (CD Quality)

In PDW, click Interface menu, then click Setup:

1. Checkmark the Soundcard box
2. Configuration: Speaker Out 3 (you may have to try several configurations before finding one that works for you)
3. Sample rate: 44100
4. Soundcard: Line in at rear panel

In PDW, Options menu, Options, see screenshot below. Then adjust the scanner squelch and volume levels for quality decode. I am able to get 100% decode rates using this setup. It takes some work, but then it will take some work even with a discriminator tap.

At some point, I'll add a discriminator tap to my Uniden scanner just to see if it makes any difference, but I'm pretty happy with it right now.

 

[mmc-dsm]

Discriminator tap is always the best.

How to here : https://www.discriminator.nl/ubc800xlt/index-en.html .

 

[CanesFan95]

You're supposed to do a discriminator tap to make it work right. You can't just use the headphone / recording / external speaker jack. You gotta do the mod. Even then, I've never gotten PDW to reliably do better than about 50% on FLEX modes.

 

[coolderb]

$20 USB SDR Dongle + free virtual audio cable +PDW= Problem solved!

https://www.rtl-sdr.com/rtl-sdr-tutorial-pocsag-pager-decoding/

 

[cg]

POCSAG is more forgiving with speaker audio but you need a decent signal and will probably not get 100%. Flex A & B can be done OK with a discriminator tap but Flex C & D really needs a 4 level slicer.

chris