New digital protocol proposal: POCSAG (TX)

[LZ2DMV]

Hi,

In case you are looking for a new digital protocol to implement, POCSAG TX capability (using the same method you used for the other digital protocols - with tones, rather than using the FSK modem due to the unavoidable prepended preamble) would be very useful, in my opinion.

It is a rather simple digital protocol for pagers. Pagers, being a simple VHF (most often) radio receivers with a digital circuit that decodes the protocol data from the received audio, are still popular in the ham community, because they are reliable and do not require complex infrastructure, so they can be used successfully in an emergency situation. The pagers themselves are pretty cheap on the secondary market, given that no commercial networks exist anymore.

Many hams use pagers converted to operate on the 2 m and 70 cm amateur bands, for example through projects like DAPNET.

Here is a simple software POCSAG encoder being utilized by another project (rpitx) that can be used as a reference point.

[troilus]

Here is a project about decode POCSAG, hope this help.

[hvscan]

+100
I just dug up my old 90s Motorola pager with the cap code clear as day on the back and a display that is surprisingly very bright still, more than happy to help in any way with testing if possible. would LOVE to see this come to life on the k5