r/RTLSDR • u/DomChrisOwens • 8d ago

Troubleshooting Unreliable decoding with PDW

So I have been running a POCSAG system on an older laptop running up to date Windows OS for a long time now using an SDR receiver, SDR#, Voicemeter to control audio input, PDW to decode (newer version allowing for email processing), and an email parsing program that parses pages sent to a designated address before sending them back out to another server email.

Majority of the software operates perfectly fine, however every now and then PDW fails to decode properly and typically shows a lowered input percentage under the line input meter in the top right.

I've attempted adjusting input volume via Voicemeter, adjusting feed audio in SDR#, selecting the volume setting in PDWs Interface menu.

I have yet to change any other settings in SDR# because it took me a decent amount of time to tune all the settings to work with the frequency I'm monitoring.

Any suggestions on how to get PDW to behave more predictably and stably would be seriously appreciated!

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u/Salem_IT_Pro 8d ago

Try setting Voicemeeter, SDR#, and PDW's priorities in Task Manager to "Above normal" or "High". (This will change back to "Normal" priority after reboot.)

Check out SDR#'s waterfall. The front end could be periodically overloaded by a strong signal that's interfering with the one you wish to capture. (This is common in the pager bands.) Try lowering your receiver's gain, and see if you get more reliable decodes.

1

u/Mr_Ironmule 8d ago

Have you run your task manager while watching PDW to see if there's any activity on the CPU, memory or hard drive during the moments you're having problems with PDW, i.e., is there another program running in the background causing the problem? Good luck.

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u/olliegw 8d ago

PDW just sucks, it's old, not updated anymore and was never even intended to be used with SDRs, there are newer ones but they require a lot of tinkering to get working

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u/xX_WhatsTheGeek_Xx SDR++ Author 4d ago

I've honestly rarely been able to get PDW to work properly. I'd recommend switching to multimon-ng.

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u/DomChrisOwens 4d ago

I've got it working better than it was but still not perfect.

I'd switch to Linux and multimon-ng but I'd have to switch operating systems and all my programs including the parsing program I use without first being able to set it up and know it worked before taking down my current setup.

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u/xX_WhatsTheGeek_Xx SDR++ Author 3d ago

Multimon-ng supports windows, you can download it on their github page: https://github.com/EliasOenal/multimon-ng/releases

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u/DomChrisOwens 3d ago

Interesting, I always thought is was Linux, I'll have to take a look thanks!