Has anyone on here investigated the possibility of turning one of the more current Moto pagers into a SAME weather alert receiver?
Granted, I have no idea if the decoding circuitry is even capable of dealing with SAME code, but I still think it'd be a cool idea.
Keep the peace(es).
Pager as NWS Alert receiver?
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kc7gr
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Pager as NWS Alert receiver?
Bruce Lane, KC7GR
"Raf tras spintern. Raf tras spoit."
Pager as NWS Alert receiver?
I know people that have done it with the 1050 hZ tone on old Minitors, but I don't know of anybody who has done it with the SAME decoding.
Re: Pager as NWS Alert receiver?
If you look at the N.W.S. description of the S.A.M.E. protocol - http://www.weather.gov/nwr/resources/same.pdf - you will see that they went out of their way to make it difficult to decode. The AFSK frequencies are non-standard and they have their own strange version of error checking. The N.W.S. reasoning was to make it difficult for someone to impersonate them and send out false messages. In reality, anyone with some basic pc programming experience can generate messages with a simple sound card. All they really did is make it difficult for people like us to build a simple, inexpensive decoder or repurpose existing hardware. Once again the federal government has created another cherry for big business to pick, just like failing to mandate the inclusion of HDTV tuners in new television sets when they passed the analog to HDTV conversion legislation. but I digress...
Even if you can get the pager to decode the AFSK, you still have to deal with the error checking. If you could get the source code for the pager and create your own version, you might have a shot at it. The simplest choice for the experimenter is an FSK decoder chip fronting a small microcontroller and the output device of choice. For the more adventuresome, a DSP can decode the FSK, do the error checking and format the output data for display with a single chip (probably the way the commercial radios are built). Whichever way you build it, it's doubtful that it could be squeezed into a cramped pager case
Regards,
George
Even if you can get the pager to decode the AFSK, you still have to deal with the error checking. If you could get the source code for the pager and create your own version, you might have a shot at it. The simplest choice for the experimenter is an FSK decoder chip fronting a small microcontroller and the output device of choice. For the more adventuresome, a DSP can decode the FSK, do the error checking and format the output data for display with a single chip (probably the way the commercial radios are built). Whichever way you build it, it's doubtful that it could be squeezed into a cramped pager case
Regards,
George
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Tom in D.C.
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- What radios do you own?: Progreso soup can with CRT
Re: Pager as NWS Alert receiver?
"...just like failing to mandate the inclusion of HDTV tuners in new television sets when they passed the analog to HDTV conversion legislation."
Which, strictly speaking, is true, but the oversight was subsequently fixed and the FCC
is now actively prosecuting those who offer non-digital TV receivers for sale who don't
warn buyers that the units will be pretty obsolete come next February. Look up the FCC
enforcement actions list if you doubt this.
Which, strictly speaking, is true, but the oversight was subsequently fixed and the FCC
is now actively prosecuting those who offer non-digital TV receivers for sale who don't
warn buyers that the units will be pretty obsolete come next February. Look up the FCC
enforcement actions list if you doubt this.
Tom in D.C.
In 1920, the U.S. Post Office Department ruled
that children may not be sent by parcel post.
In 1920, the U.S. Post Office Department ruled
that children may not be sent by parcel post.
Re: Pager as NWS Alert receiver?
"Which, strictly speaking, is true, but the oversight was subsequently fixed and the FCC
is now actively prosecuting those who offer non-digital TV receivers for sale who don't
warn buyers that the units will be pretty obsolete come next February."
The oversight was fixed about seven years too late... Don't ask me to pat anyone on the back for "fixing" this, as you call it, "oversight". There were plenty of private citizens, me among them, that pointed out this impending fleecing of the populace before the original conversion mandate was passed in 1997.
Have you noticed that all current discussions of HDTV conversion omit any reference to the 1997 mandate for conversion which should have included a cutoff date for production of televisions without DTV tuners? How many hundreds of millions of analog only sets were produced between 2000, when the cutoff should have been instituted and 2007 when it finally went into effect? Given the "throw away rather than fix" society we live in, probably over 60% of the sets currently in use have been bought since 2000. Having DTV tuners on those sets would all but eliminate the need for the government converter box subsidy program.
"Eighty to 200 million televisions could be discarded over the next thirty months,
says John Shegerian, CEO of Electronic Recyclers International, a leading electronics waste recycler.
Worse, he says, there's no federal plan to recycle those sets, even though "almost everything in those
TVs could be recycled."" ((c) 2008 Blue Ridge Press)
This is the truly deplorable affect of the HDTV conversion that has been swept under the rug. Most of the current problems could have been avoided if the Republicans had been looking out for the good of the people instead of themselves and big business. There are HUGE lessons to be learned from this debacle but I doubt that it will be anything more than a minor historical footnote.
Regards,
George
is now actively prosecuting those who offer non-digital TV receivers for sale who don't
warn buyers that the units will be pretty obsolete come next February."
The oversight was fixed about seven years too late... Don't ask me to pat anyone on the back for "fixing" this, as you call it, "oversight". There were plenty of private citizens, me among them, that pointed out this impending fleecing of the populace before the original conversion mandate was passed in 1997.
Have you noticed that all current discussions of HDTV conversion omit any reference to the 1997 mandate for conversion which should have included a cutoff date for production of televisions without DTV tuners? How many hundreds of millions of analog only sets were produced between 2000, when the cutoff should have been instituted and 2007 when it finally went into effect? Given the "throw away rather than fix" society we live in, probably over 60% of the sets currently in use have been bought since 2000. Having DTV tuners on those sets would all but eliminate the need for the government converter box subsidy program.
"Eighty to 200 million televisions could be discarded over the next thirty months,
says John Shegerian, CEO of Electronic Recyclers International, a leading electronics waste recycler.
Worse, he says, there's no federal plan to recycle those sets, even though "almost everything in those
TVs could be recycled."" ((c) 2008 Blue Ridge Press)
This is the truly deplorable affect of the HDTV conversion that has been swept under the rug. Most of the current problems could have been avoided if the Republicans had been looking out for the good of the people instead of themselves and big business. There are HUGE lessons to be learned from this debacle but I doubt that it will be anything more than a minor historical footnote.
Regards,
George
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Tom in D.C.
- Posts: 3859
- Joined: Tue Sep 04, 2001 4:00 pm
- What radios do you own?: Progreso soup can with CRT
Re: Pager as NWS Alert receiver?
Typical government foot dragging, etc., but last week I acquired my first
two HDTV converters, and from what I can see there won't be that many
old NTSC receivers being thrown in the dump as long as they're working.
The converters produce a very nice, studio quality, 480i NTSC image, with
programmed tuning, setup, muting, etc. pretty much the same as found on
a current HDTV receiver. The converters also have a program guide, which
my 37-inch Philips HDTV receiver does not. Actually, it's sort of hard to
understand how they can sell an ATSC tuner with remote control, batteries,
interconnect cable, and software for the price. Several years ago, when
widescreen plasmas (LCDs were not common at the time) were just starting out,
the going price for an add-on ATSC slide-in tuner was more than $200.
Store price for each converter was $60; net cost was $20 each with the discount
cards.
two HDTV converters, and from what I can see there won't be that many
old NTSC receivers being thrown in the dump as long as they're working.
The converters produce a very nice, studio quality, 480i NTSC image, with
programmed tuning, setup, muting, etc. pretty much the same as found on
a current HDTV receiver. The converters also have a program guide, which
my 37-inch Philips HDTV receiver does not. Actually, it's sort of hard to
understand how they can sell an ATSC tuner with remote control, batteries,
interconnect cable, and software for the price. Several years ago, when
widescreen plasmas (LCDs were not common at the time) were just starting out,
the going price for an add-on ATSC slide-in tuner was more than $200.
Store price for each converter was $60; net cost was $20 each with the discount
cards.
Tom in D.C.
In 1920, the U.S. Post Office Department ruled
that children may not be sent by parcel post.
In 1920, the U.S. Post Office Department ruled
that children may not be sent by parcel post.
-
wycowboy911
- New User
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- Joined: Sat Aug 16, 2008 10:38 am
Re: Pager as NWS Alert receiver?
I don't know much about 2-tone paging other than it makes my pager go off, but part of the SAME standard (per the NWS) is that the SAME preamble is encoded in AFSK (alert time, affected areas, yada yada) and then the preamble is followed by a 1050hz alert tone (5-10 seconds if I remember correctly). Don't know if it's possible to set up a minitor for the alert tone, but it seems to me that it would (should?). You wouldn't be able to program specific FIPS codes, but at least you'd still get an alert.
Re: Pager as NWS Alert receiver?
No...but...if the warning tone is going off your local NWS channel, I am sure that the watch/warning would generally apply to you so I think you would be safe with just alerting off that tone. 
Lowband radio. The original and non-complicated wide area interoperable communications system
Re: Pager as NWS Alert receiver?
Program the 1050hz tone as a long tone c
Or if you have a minitor ii make sure its configured for long tone c alert, and put a reed for 1050hz in.
Thats the way we have it with our pagers.
Or if you have a minitor ii make sure its configured for long tone c alert, and put a reed for 1050hz in.
Thats the way we have it with our pagers.
Tyler Lewis
Re: Pager as NWS Alert receiver?
I've seen Director pagers for NWS alerting
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yardbirdjr
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Re: Pager as NWS Alert receiver?
G & G communications sells them to decode weather
David
David
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Stewart_Comm
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Re: Pager as NWS Alert receiver?
I bought a Minitor V pager that was only programed to decode the 1050hz tone. I had nothing in the programing, but it had the beep beep beep beep whenever the long tone was sent. It is possible because I had it done. Let me know if I can help with anything!
Derek,
Stewart Comm
740-213-3738
Derek,
Stewart Comm
740-213-3738