While directed at the RTL-SDR, this tutorial may also be useful for use with other software defined radios such as the Funcube dongle, Airspy and HackRF, or even traditional hardware radios with a discriminator tap. Here YouTube user nerdymark shows 18 minutes of pager decoding using SDRSharp, PDW and an RTL-SDR. Please research and respect your local laws before attempting this project. In some countries it may be illegal to even set up a receiver. We note that in most countries it is perfectly legal to receive pager messages, as they are plain text unencrypted, but it is illegal to share or act on the information received. Previously an art installation in New York was set up with an SDR to try and highlight some of the privacy and security concerns that pager use brings. Security concerns also stem from the fact that many IT companies set up systems that forward notices of emails being received with the subject line visible, and system messages that contain IP addresses, email addresses and names, database error messages, and URLs. This is a concern as it is a major breach of patient privacy. Obviously a lot of messages sent through pagers are plain text and contain personal data. Not many people use pagers these days with mobile phone text messaging being used more, but pagers are still popular with doctors, hospitals in general, some fire and ambulance agencies and various IT companies, as they tend to be more reliable and have greater coverage.

If you don't know what a pager is, since they are now uncommon, here is a brief explanation from Wikipedia:Ī pager is a wireless telecommunications device that receives and displays numeric or text messages, or receives and announces voice messages. With this setup you can receive pager messages from all pager users on the system. The RTL-SDR software defined radio combined with SDRSharp, and a POCSAG/Flex capable decoding application can be used to decode pager messages. ExtIO with Decimation & Tuner Bandwidth Controls.Manual gain controls and decimation driver.Measuring Traffic Volumes with Passive Radar.SignalsEverywhere Direction Finding Tutorial.Measuring Filter Characteristics & VSWR.

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Pocsag pager software