Decoding Fire & Ambulance MDT data & hospital pages with a $10 SDR Radio

You don't need much to decode pager traffic - just a frugal Software Defined Radio and some free software. In this video I show how to decode the pages, particularly those used by Emergency Services (Fire & Ambulance / EMT).


These pages are often displayed on Mobile Data Terminals (MDTs).
I used a generic dongle in this video, but I recommend the frequency stabilised units (with TCXO) below :

NooElec SMART : https://amzn.to/2YKlh6p

RTL-SDR v3 : https://amzn.to/2NIGGGZ



I used an MCX to BNC adapter for the antenna : https://amzn.to/3omy3W7

However if you are using an RTL-SDR or NooElec SMART you'll need one of the SMA connectors, such as those in the kits below.
RTL-SDR pigtail kit : https://amzn.to/3F5Stsf
NooElec SMA connector kit : https://amzn.to/3jLAXyJ


-- Software Links --
SDR++ : https://github.com/AlexandreRouma/SDR...

VB Cable : https://vb-audio.com/Cable/index.htm
PDW : https://discriminator.nl/pdw/index-en...



-- Other YouTube videos mentioned --

Pager use by Dr. Siobhan ‪@ViolinMD‬ :    • Day in the Life of a DOCTOR: EMERGENCY PAGER!  

SDR++ review by ‪@SignalsEverywhere‬ :    • SDR++, The Cross-Platform bloat-free SDR s...  

SDR++ review by ‪@TechMindsOfficial‬ :    • SDR++ Multi Platform SDR Application  



-- Timecode --
00:00 - Introduction
00:52 - Pagers in 2021
02:20 - Pager Users
03:39 - Emergency Service Pages
03:59 - MDTs (Mobile Data Terminals)
04:21 - Decoding Setup
05:57 - Set up SDR++

07:45 - Set up PDW pager decoder
10:36 - Filtering Messages in PDW
12:09 - Understanding Fire & EMS pager messages
14:12 - What can you decode?



Photos of Edmonton Fire Rescue Service vehicles found at http://www.barp.ca/photo_index2.html, and copyright mike-from-edmonton



As always, thanks for watching the Frugal Radio (FR) channel!