scanSydney

If you are decoding the above freqs. then 99.9% of the messages ar not encrypted,
the problem you are having is the messages arn't being fully decoded.

If you listen to the channel while watching the needle in pdw you might see it go up but then drop before the noise from that channel stops.
To fix this try adjusting the volume on your scanner up or down untill you find just the right spot.
Though be careful, you only need to adjust the volume in very small steps otherwise you will go straight past that 'sweet spot' where you will get a decent decode.

I have found that some sound cards wont even allow a good decode, so if you have spent a few hours on it and still cannot get a good decode i suggest you try a different computer or soundcard.

Let’s get this thread going again, it’s been close to a year and the season is just starting to kick off

Has anyone had any success decoding nswfb lately?
I've just switch my scanner to LINK a few days ago,
Nothing very informative yet but yes a few Test messages to some old capcodes I had set from last time.

is PDW the only software?? i just cant figure it out!

jaskel wrote:is PDW the only software?? i just cant figure it out!

The only really tricky part to setting up PDW is getting the line input levels spot on (if you're using the soundcard that is), to start with I would try a lower setting as mine is only set at about 2/7 on the windoze volume control panel.

Too low a setting makes PDW stop decoding halfway thru a message and too high a setting will garble all your messages. Once you've got it sorted you shouldn't ever have to touch it again unless you change hardware.

The other thing is, I have to exit the PDW software and restart it every 24 hours or so as it tends to freeze up or stop decoding after a while, heaps of people are having the same problem judging by the questions on the PDF yahoo forum although a fix would be useless to me because I'm stuck using V2.16 as that's the last version which had ftp support.

Andrew

I use PDW myself and it works a treat. The other thing is to avoid channels which have lots of static. Make sure your reception is nice and clear. Discriminator out is mandatory. In the setup, you might want to try different pre-sets - such as Discriminator 1, 2 or 3 till you find one that works well. Most messages will be readable, though there are some that are encrypted/coded in other ways. The Sydney Area Health Service pagers on 148.1375mhz are usually all in the clear. Some Hutchinson/Link frequencies carry data which looks coded, mixed with plain text.

any chance you want to participate in the thread i've started about the sydney wide paging network for hospitals ?

No problem, see reply.

alexMc wrote:~I just stored the above frequencies and i'm scanning them.~

Unless you're only scanning two or maybe three freqs at the most I've never had much luck in Scan mode with PDW, generally if you miss the initial tone, PDW won't decode the message? Much more reliable to just Hold on one pager frequency or feeding multiple receivers into the one input does work unless two signals get sent at once?

Andrew

Edit: DOH! Sorry, didn't realise I was re-reading page 1 and I've replied to a very old message...

OK, so that you all know, 148.9875 is the frequency used for the NSWFB Station Paging system, these are a Stand alone paging unit installed at each Retained Staffed Station out side the “Links Metropolitan Paging Network”, so outside the Hunter, Central Coast, Sydney, Illawarra and Blue Mountains Areas.

These stand alone systems don’t send an Alpha Text Message either to the Retained FF’s Pagers (nor does the Links Metropolitan Paging Network System), they are only a Audible Page system, so only a “Beep Beep Beep” paging system to alert Retained FF’s that their Station has a Call.

You beat me to the punch there Grant. I was going to say the exact same thing. The NSWFB pagers for the retainers are just beepers.