Taxis

General questions on scanning from 30 to 3000Mhz. Not sure what you can receive in your area? Here's the place to ask!

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numloxx
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Taxis

Post by numloxx »

Hi all,

Anybody know how to decode taxi transmissions? Or would I be wasting my time?

Cheers
Bonez
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Re: Taxis

Post by Bonez »

Something I've always wondered too...

I'm still trying to figure out how to decode POCSAG correctly. I don't have a discriminator output on my scanner but I've been told that you can fiddle with the volume levels and baud rate while using the line in on your sound card and the headphone out jack on the scanner.

Anyone managed to do that?

I'd be interested in mastering the taxi stuff once I get pagers working :)

I run Linux and there's plenty of open source data decoding apps, just need to try a few different ones.
radiotech
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Re: Taxis

Post by radiotech »

Bonez wrote:I'm still trying to figure out how to decode POCSAG correctly. I don't have a discriminator output on my scanner but I've been told that you can fiddle with the volume levels and baud rate while using the line in on your sound card and the headphone out jack on the scanner.

Anyone managed to do that?
I've been able to use the PDW program to decode POCSAG transmissions without the use of a discrimator output, it takes patience to get it working correctly. IIRC it took me about two weeks to work it out, now it works good as gold!!

Has anyone got a recording of the "data type" that your taxis network utilises? The one our metropolitan taxis over this end of the world don't use anything that is has been successfully been decoded, i've asked the question in many many places over the years to no success.

Below is a sample of their transmission:
http://www.mehow.id.au/web_files/Silver ... ervice.rar
Bonez
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Re: Taxis

Post by Bonez »

Thanks for the recording...

I have a feeling ours are similar to that but I should be in bed so don't have time to plug the scanner in and do you a recording right now. I'll try and get a recording up tomorrow of our main company "Swan Taxis" and then we can compare.

Cheers
bonez
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Re: Taxis

Post by robbage »

radiotech wrote:
Bonez wrote:I'm still trying to figure out how to decode POCSAG correctly. I don't have a discriminator output on my scanner but I've been told that you can fiddle with the volume levels and baud rate while using the line in on your sound card and the headphone out jack on the scanner.

Anyone managed to do that?
I've been able to use the PDW program to decode POCSAG transmissions without the use of a discrimator output, it takes patience to get it working correctly.
Me also. I posted some pics somewhere on this site. Getting the software audio settings and radio volume level synced is definitely a fiddle. I downloaded a free program which shows an oscilloscope view of the incoming audio and adjusted that for maximum waveform without clipping. That helped.
Rob
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Re: Taxis

Post by Bonez »

Again I've run out of time and only just got home from work, should have been in bed hours ago - I start at 8am today!

I promise I will get you a recording of our taxi company on the weekend and post it up so we can see if there is any difference!

Cheers
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Re: Taxis

Post by radiotech »

Bonez take your time, hopefully we can nail this one on the head!! Robbage do you have the name of the program or a download link handy? I wouldn't mind giving it a go, might be able to help fix a few other devices that I connect up and record.
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Re: Taxis

Post by robbage »

I uninstalled it once I had the settings but I'm pretty sure it was OmniScope. It's shareware with time limit etc.
Also check out this one http://hacca.altervista.org
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Re: Taxis

Post by radiotech »

robbage wrote:Also check out this one http://hacca.altervista.org
That fixed my other problem, thank you very much! =D>
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Yaesu FT-1802M 2m Ham TRX mobile x 2
Yaesu FT-7800R 2m/70cm Ham TRX and wide band RX mobile
Icom IC-208H 2m/70cm Ham TRX and wide band RX mobile
Icom IC-706MKIIG all-band all-mode Ham TRX mobile
Icom IC-V85 2m VHF Ham TRX handheld
Wouxun KG-UVD1P VHF/UHF wideband Ham TRX handheld
Wouxun KG-679P VHF wideband Ham TRX handheld
Wouxun KG-713 UHF wideband Ham TRX handheld
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Re: Taxis

Post by robbage »

radiotech wrote:
robbage wrote:Also check out this one http://hacca.altervista.org
That fixed my other problem, thank you very much! =D>
Great... what was the other problem?
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