Weve shared videos showing this sort of thing before, but needsec gives a great overview of what you need to do to accomplish successful decoding of flex 1600. Jun 18, 20 reminds me of the late 90searly 2000s when i messed around with decoding pocsag with a wideband scanner and a computer sound card. Feb 23, 2006 the pager uses a protocol named pocsag or post office code standardization advisory group code. It is always surprising there is still pager traffic as when is the last time you can remember seeing someone with a pager in public. The advent of modern computing and analogue to digital converters allows most of these traditionally hardware based components to be implemented into software instead. Sign up gnuradio block for en decoding the flex pager protokol. With this setup you can receive pager messages from all pager users on the system. This time in tradecraft, were gonna be checking out how to decode pager signals with the rtlsdr. However im now on windows 10 and after taking a break from radio related things for about a year im trying to get this to run again with not much luck. Flex flexible wide area paging protocol is motorolas high speed oneway paging protocol that supports 1600, 3200, and 6400 bps. There exists pocsag decoder software that takes an audio signal into.
If you dont know what a pager is, since they are now uncommon, here is a brief explanation from wikipedia. The former does the flex decoding, and the latter posts whatever it hears on his. Paging data terminals, receivers and control products. Whie searching for a decoder for a particular mode that is only commercially available so it seems i came across this decoding software and decided to give it a try. Make sure they are 100 mhz or 400 mhz depending on which type of transmitter you are going to use. The users of pagers are mostly hospitals and doctors. For monitoring pocsag networks, enable pocsag decoding and the boxes 512, 1200 and 2400 should be checked. From this version on, the flextime can be used to correct the pc systemtime. Doc no 1001034b page 6 of 22 pager may be unknowingly stolen that then can be used to eavesdrop group or personal messages. A radioscannerreceiver and a soundcard are needed to decode pocsagtransmissions.
Nov 15, 2017 software defined radio and pager decoding ive been playing again recently with my cheap r820t rtl dongles. Pdt3000 the pdt3000 paging data terminal is a multifunction desktop or invehicle pager capable of receiving messages and displaying them on a large x 40mm graphical lcd display. All these pagers are compatible with either flex or pocsag protocols. These, when used with suitable custom drivers and sdr software, are interesting devices allowing for the reception of all manner of signals. Any non flex transmission immediately following a flex messages ends the flex batch. Cwget decodes up to five strongest signals in about 1600 hz bandwidth and shows them in this window. A pager is a wireless telecommunications device that receives. Porting the audio to pdw using vac or vbcable works fine. One side of the interface is connected to the discriminator output, the other side to the pcs usb or serial port.
It is heavenly based on the examples that come with gr pager and i would like to thank johnathan corgan for his work on creating this addon to gnuradio. Flex can transmit tone, numeric, alphanumeric, and binary data. Some flex paging networks broadcast the flextime, which contains the current date and time, which can be used by the pagers, so time and date dont have to be set manually. A general discussion on the flex stack oneway software protocol will be covered with emphasis on architectural requirements.
Not always used by the below agencies and is also used by other unknown companys. Pager terminals may be attacked to retrieve security keys and to eavesdrop on outgoing messages or to read messages before they are encrypted. We do this by providing a complete array of pagers for corresponding paging systems. Return to normal operation by turning the pager off and then back on. At distances of from 1 km to 10 km or so, the increased path loss at around 930 mhz relative to that at 454 mhz would be between 23 db on average.
To receive flex networks, enable flex decoding and the boxes 1600, 3200 and 6400 should be. This version is virus free one of my hobbies is decoding digital rf transmissions from across the spectrum. If you prefer a video tutorial, m6lme on youtube has recently uploaded one where he explains the pdw pager decoding software, the. Gnuradio block for en decoding the flex pager protokol not functional yet dl0mucgrflexpager. Decoding flex 1600 pager traffic with rtlsdr video tutorial. Tracking maritime boat positions like a radar with ais decoding. Both the applications are capable of decoding and interpreting pager transmissions. The main pager channels here all received by a couple of dvbt sticks with audio sent to pdw using vac. There exists pocsag decoder software that takes an audio. This is likely illegal in most parts of the world, especially sharing what was received. In most countries it is perfectly legal to receive these messages. Pocsag decoder software is able to display pager messages by using a normal radio scanner, a computer and a soundcard. Ideally for pocsag decoding you want a scanner with a discriminator output but im using an icom icr2 and this doesnt have one.
Tracking aircraft positions like a radar with adsb decoding. Motorola flex protocol references embedded artistry. Pager traffic with rtl sdr, pdw and hdsdr 8 years ago by admin 0 in this video superphish shows a rtl2832 based dongle being used to receive and decode pocsag flex pager data. The pager s are from a local hospital, hence them talking about patient, pills, medication, etc.
Special macrosequences can be used in the cwtype software v1. Decoding pocsag pagers using gqrx and rtlsdr dongle radio components such as modulators, demodulators and tuners are traditionally implemented in hardware components. Mar 16, 2014 finally got around to making an update videotutorial on how i decode pager transmissions with the rtlsdr dongles. In addition to restaurant pagers, hospital pager, etc. Using a discriminator tap off of a receiver i have successfully decoded flex upto 1600bps using a pc soundcard.
Try to get 512 baud in case your setup has trouble at faster speeds, also try to get the capcode and any programming passwords, you should be able to find these used pagers for. The motorola br850 pager this pager offers accessibility to stay on top of your busy lifestyle. Jul 26, 2012 pocsag post office code standards advisory group is a common paging transmission format. Hi all, i run pdw decoding pocsag and have had no luck whatsoever running thru the headphone jack. Haskell flex pocsag page encoder for multimonng consumption faithanalogpagerenc. Decoding pager data with rtlsdr tradecraft youtube. I can say that the two pagers i have to have for work are flex. Pocsag and flex decoding with the fcd with todays modern mobile and wifi networks pagers might seem terribly old fashioned. The former does the flex decoding, and the latter posts whatever it hears on his local network. Decoding pocsag and flex pager messages on windows with pdw.
May 15, 2012 demonstration of funcube dongle, and pdw v3. Pocsag post office code standardisation advisory group, also known as superpocsag, radio paging code no. Paging operators are looking at flex because it is a faster data rate system that allows more users within the same bandwidth. I found you cant get a good decode and the messages end up a jumble of letters without a discriminator tap. Pocsag, flex paging sdr software defined radio hak5. To be specific, our pager includes 1 line numeric flex or pocsag type, 2 line chinese type, 4 line alphanumeric type, color tft display waterproof type and ultra thin waterproof type. Open sdrsharp and set the audio piping method to the one you will use under the audio output drop down box and then press play. Okamura and others have demonstrated that frequency is a factor in path loss at vhfuhf. I suspect that elfnetcommunications would know more about which is more popular and maybe will chime in with a. Ive even resorted having the squelch off altogether too. May 25, 20 the rtlsdr software defined radio combined with sdrsharp, and a pocsag flex capable decoding application can be used to decode pager messages.
Please respect the law in your country concerning the capturing of radiotransmissions. 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. A receiver with a discriminator output or 9600 bps packet radio output. Flex is a synchronous protocol which means that all paging transmitters and receivers operate at the same time. It took some time to discover the flextime format, but we did it.
A piece of software called multimon was found to allow some of these data transmissions to be. Even flex 6400 can be decoded if you have a good solid discriminator level and the. Scan radio signal with rtlsdr all things in moderation. Below is a small reference of some ways to get started. Using pro84 scanner and pdw software to decode pager pocsag flex frequency. There are numerous other good decoding software applications that only work with the hardware data slicers including winflex.
Elumaglow soft blue display for superior readability. To reduce amount of garbage in this window an squelch is. Design and implementation of a practical flex paging decoder grayson wireless 2 motorola inc. For flex networks which use dynamic groupcalls the options use flex group mode and log groupcodes, but dont show them can be selected. This quick calculation gives pocsag 1200 about a 10 db advantage over flex 6400. Mar 03, 2019 tracking aircraft positions like a radar with adsb decoding. Set the receive mode to nfm, filter bandwidth to 12500 hz, filter order to 10, turn squelch off and filter audio off. The flex protocol requires that all receivers keep time within 5 sec of the paging transmitter. Viewing 1 post of 1 total author posts larsontrparticipant larsontr june 18, 2019 at 10. To receive flex networks, enable flex decoding and the boxes 1600, 3200 and 6400 should be checked.
Make sure they are using the pocsag protocol, not golay or flex. Decoding unencrypted digital voice transmissions such as p25dmrdstar. Openpoc is a crossplatform pocsag decoder written in freepascallazarus. Alternatively, if there are any decent flex decoding apps known. Finally got around to making an update videotutorial on how i decode pager transmissions with the rtlsdr dongles. Hi ive recently been experimenting with newly acquired sdrs rsp pro and airspy.
The spok universal t3pt5 pps interface supports both serial and us connections to the users p. But pagers are still in use today in places where mobile phones typically cannot reach and also in places where the operation of the radio transmitters contained in mobile phones is problematic or prohibited. Combined with a suitable receiver, preferably with a discriminatortap, pdw can be used for offair decoding of pocsag, flex, acars. But as far as i know, dynamic groupcalls are only used in the netherlands. The rtlsdr software defined radio combined with sdrsharp, and a pocsag flex capable decoding application can be used to decode pager messages. The advantage over using a normal scanner and soundcard is no need for a. Make sure you view the video in 720p to see the text clearly. Decoding pocsag pagers using gqrx and rtlsdr dongle. Since 2003, peter hunt has developed pdw to the most important free. This article is an effort for doing the same task using only software code.
Ultra wideband coverage sdr receiver mk4 shielded aluminum box. The rtlsdr software defined radio combined with sdrsharp, and a pocsag flex capable decoding application can be used to decode. Pocsag decoder software is able to display pager messages by using a. A pc with a usb port or serial port also pci or pcmcia card an interface. Sep 16, 2019 these projects can serve as useful references if you run into a problem decoding flex messages. I was wondering if there is anyway to get the older decoding software called pdw to work with these applications through the vac. Since both pocsag and flex use the same peak frequency deviation, the noise bandwidth for both will be about the same assuming a simple pager receiver design. Pocsag pager, flex pager, decoder board, receiver decoder. It uses the first message to synchronize the decoder, so it cant decode that message.
Flex flexible wide area paging protocol is motorolas high speed. Mar 01, 2020 tracking aircraft positions like a radar with adsb decoding. A 4 level slicer is only required for reliable decoding of flex above 3200 baud. May 21, 2012 pocsag and flex decoding with the fcd with todays modern mobile and wifi networks pagers might seem terribly old fashioned. Flex uses either 2fsk or 4fsk 4level frequency shift keying. Using the commandfile external software can be called. The rtlsdr software defined radio combined with sdrsharp, and a pocsagflex capable decoding application can be used to decode. The file multichannel decoder command opens additional multirx window. Included are drowning detection system, decoder board and receiver decoder board. All other modes below flex 6400 can be solidly decoded using a two level slicer, or no slicer at all. Whitepaper encryption for pocsag and flex paging systems. Forums sa series discussions decoder for flex or pocsag protocols this topic has 0 replies, 1 voice, and was last updated 9 months, 4 weeks ago by larsontr. If you prefer a video tutorial, m6lme on youtube has recently uploaded one where he explains the pdw pager decoding software, the vbaudio banana audio mixing software, and how to use sdrconsole with an rtlsdr and the aforementioned software to receive and decode the signal.
Sdrlive formerly linuxsdr is meant to be a quick and easy way to get your sdr up and running. An open source decoder for the flex paging protocol. This is the r820t unit used with 100% data decoding in pdw 3. In this video superphish shows a rtl2832 based dongle being used to receive and decode pocsag flex pager data. These projects can serve as useful references if you run into a problem decoding flex messages. Pager systems are famously known to be insecure, and due to the lack of encryption and high transmit power anyone with an rtlsdr or other sdr can receive and decode pager messages. The synchronous protocol improves channel efficiency and extends pager battery life. Decoding flex 1600 pager traffic with rtlsdr video tutorial youtube user needsec has posted a useful tutorial video showing how to set up decoding of flex 1600 pager traffic on a windows system using pdw, sdrsharp and an rtlsdr usb stick. If you find yourself in possession of some old pocsag pagers, you. Wex international is dedicated to help industries such as restaurants, hospitals, retail, business offices, warehousing, healthcare, etc. Most of the time i set the decoder to decode both and didnt pay much attention to what mode was detected. Enable the file by going to control panel, programs and features, turn windows features on or off, and checking the box for.
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