Hi,
I am interested in messing around with alphanumeric paging on amatuer radio. I'm looking for any documentation which may assist me in the process of re-crystaling (possibly the Motorola Advisor?) alphanumeric pagers. If this task is too complex, or requires expensive equipment, does anybody know of a company that I could send pagers to to have them recrystaled? Sorry for the somewhat off-topic post, but I have been able to find very little information on this. Thanks!!
FR
Pager Re-Crystaling
Moderator: Queue Moderator
Hello.
It is easy to put a pager in the ham bands, but, why alpanumeric?.
The older tone and voice are easier, just generate the correct tones, and when it opens squelch, you can say what you want, this works real well with repeaters.
The digital models require things like POSIG, or GOLRAY for signalling, true FM, and not phase modulation, does not normally work well with repeater.
Several Motorola pagers, as well as other "things", are programmable, no xtals!.
The older stuff, like Moto' BPR T&V as well as digital, use a crystal in the LO, not a TCXO, change and re-tune, my favorite, pageboyII/bellboyII, cheap, really good audio, comes in VHF low/high and UHF, uses vibrosponder reeds, still easy to get.
The never stuff, codeplugs, not hard to find
Have fun.
It is easy to put a pager in the ham bands, but, why alpanumeric?.
The older tone and voice are easier, just generate the correct tones, and when it opens squelch, you can say what you want, this works real well with repeaters.
The digital models require things like POSIG, or GOLRAY for signalling, true FM, and not phase modulation, does not normally work well with repeater.
Several Motorola pagers, as well as other "things", are programmable, no xtals!.
The older stuff, like Moto' BPR T&V as well as digital, use a crystal in the LO, not a TCXO, change and re-tune, my favorite, pageboyII/bellboyII, cheap, really good audio, comes in VHF low/high and UHF, uses vibrosponder reeds, still easy to get.
The never stuff, codeplugs, not hard to find
Have fun.
I've done it before with the advisors. Very easy to do, just need to find the software that generates the POCSAG. You can also build a programmer very easily...
Good luck finding a good copy of the POCSAG protocol, we wanted to write our own software, so that you could send an e-mail, and it would put the message through the transmitter. We wanted to write it into the script so that it would ID every 10 minutes, but couldn't find any more info.
Let me know if you have questions, i'll do my best to answer them...
-Alex
Good luck finding a good copy of the POCSAG protocol, we wanted to write our own software, so that you could send an e-mail, and it would put the message through the transmitter. We wanted to write it into the script so that it would ID every 10 minutes, but couldn't find any more info.
Let me know if you have questions, i'll do my best to answer them...
-Alex
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fireradio
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I am thinking of using one of the Kantronics Digital Radio modems (http://www.kantronics.com) to actually transmit the POCSAG over the radio. I need more information on how to actually recrystal/reprogram the Advisors. What kind of crystals do I need, where can I get them, do I need to retune the pagers or do I need any special equipment? Sorry for all the questions, but pagers are brand-new to me. Thanks!On 2001-09-28 21:54, alex wrote:
I've done it before with the advisors. Very easy to do, just need to find the software that generates the POCSAG. You can also build a programmer very easily...
Good luck finding a good copy of the POCSAG protocol, we wanted to write our own software, so that you could send an e-mail, and it would put the message through the transmitter. We wanted to write it into the script so that it would ID every 10 minutes, but couldn't find any more info.
Let me know if you have questions, i'll do my best to answer them...
-Alex
FR
Well, I found a company by the name of PageCorp. They make crystals. What you need to do is to look at the IF of the board. Take appart the Advisor, and look at the board that detaches from the board with the screen. There should be two crystals there. One has the IF, and the other has the frequency on it. You need to buy another crystal that is made for the right IF, or else it won't work. If you are creative with why you want the crystals, they will make you a sample batch. Wait about 4-6 weeks or so for them to arrive. I was doing this as a club project, so I was able to convince their director of sales to "give" us some crystals for a project.
To change the crystal, de-soder it, and resoder the new one in, and you'll be set to go. You'll also need to reprogram the pager. If it has a password on it, try "thebest" it seems to be universal amoung PageNet, Skytel, Arch, and a few others. Also, Advisor, and motorola are popular passwords.
Keep in mind that you do need to identify in either voice or morse after each transmission (if done on ham) unless your expecting enough traffic to do it every 10 minutes. You also only going to have to have "hams" on the other end of the pager. technically, if I recall correctly, it has to call you -- so the terminal could output in morse - CALLSIGN de CALLSIGN, and that would be considered a call, and then end with an ID. I don't know if that's correct or not, I'd have to break out my HAM Radio book.
Let me know if this helps, and if you have further questions. I haven't used the Kantronics TNC to do POCSAG, but I hear it works well. I didn't have to do any special tuning to the pagers, but I did play around with different baud rates, data inversion, and some other stuff. Pretty neat.
-Alex
To change the crystal, de-soder it, and resoder the new one in, and you'll be set to go. You'll also need to reprogram the pager. If it has a password on it, try "thebest" it seems to be universal amoung PageNet, Skytel, Arch, and a few others. Also, Advisor, and motorola are popular passwords.
Keep in mind that you do need to identify in either voice or morse after each transmission (if done on ham) unless your expecting enough traffic to do it every 10 minutes. You also only going to have to have "hams" on the other end of the pager. technically, if I recall correctly, it has to call you -- so the terminal could output in morse - CALLSIGN de CALLSIGN, and that would be considered a call, and then end with an ID. I don't know if that's correct or not, I'd have to break out my HAM Radio book.
Let me know if this helps, and if you have further questions. I haven't used the Kantronics TNC to do POCSAG, but I hear it works well. I didn't have to do any special tuning to the pagers, but I did play around with different baud rates, data inversion, and some other stuff. Pretty neat.
-Alex
The only one I know of is POC32. we have gotten it to transmit messages, and works well... Go on google and do a search for POC32, and you should be able to find it...
There are other programs out there, but that's the easiet to find and use.
It's hard to find the protocol to write your own. If you do, please let me know. I want a copy.
-Alex
There are other programs out there, but that's the easiet to find and use.
It's hard to find the protocol to write your own. If you do, please let me know. I want a copy.
-Alex
