Small yellow warning triangle to left of meter????

[w1av]

I an new to using PDW. I am using it to monitor ACARS and just recently discovered POCSAG where I can monitor some type of medical pager on 436.0875. I have a question. When I start the program, shortly after I do a small yellow triangle with exclamation point appears to the left of the meter....on top right of screen. I read the manual but no reference to that triangle. Obviously something appears to be wrong or not functioning right. So please enlighten me on this triangle so I can fix problem if there is one.

[VidarParry]

Hi w1av.
I only have experience with POCSAG, so can't comment on the ACARS.
It usually means it isn't decoding the signal very well. In my experience this is most likely due to signal strength/quality or problems with the slicer.

Depending on your setup, you should be getting near 100% and full swing on the meter.

Can you describe your setup a bit more? scanner, discriminator tap or sound input, USB serial interface, PC OS, type etc?

Cheers
...Steve

[w1av]

OK setup is pretty basic cause I just started to get into this area of monitoring via computer. Monitoring POCSAG/FLEX signals.  Scanner is a Bearcat BC700a with audio cable running from output of scanner in back to input of soundcard in computer. Computer a PC Windows 7 Ultimate.  With this setup I am seeing things on screen OK....But just curious what that triangle is for.  Getting REAL strong pager-type signals coming in on 152.6 and 436.0875 a mixture of plain english and random characters.  The discriminator tap sounds like a better option but not sure how to do it.

[Discriminator]

But just curious what that triangle is for.

If the decoding quality drops below a certain value, the triangle will show.

The discriminator tap sounds like a better option

Yes. Check the domain name of this forum/site.

but not sure how to do it

Why not? https://www.discriminator.nl/com217/index-en.html

[VidarParry]

[Edit - ooops - crossover with Rene's post - I'll leave mine here anyway!]

The random characters sound like corrupt messages - that would be what's causing your yellow triangle. Using sound is definitely sub-optimal if you are serious about decoding:-)

The ideal setup is with a discriminator tap and through the USB interface.

See https://www.discriminator.nl/order/index-en.html for details of the USB interface and how to do the discriminator tap.

Cheers
...Steve

[Discriminator]

Thanks Steve 

[w1av]

I'd really rather attempt to do the discriminator tap myself but I don't know what to do. I am using a Bearcat BC700a scanner and its pretty easy to take off covers and get inside with room to work. Is there a site that has information on everything involved with doing this modification to any particular scanner?

[VidarParry]

Rene already gave you the link in his post above:-)

 https://www.discriminator.nl/com217/index-en.html