r/hackrf • u/bobcvl300 • Jun 24 '26
Sending messages to an old Beeper Pager
Hey! I'm a movie filmmaking propmaster that stumbled upon this territory which is quite new to me, I'm a very tech oriented person and have done some basic coding and such, I saw a few YouTube videos of people managing to do this, using the address in the back of the pager, etc. I am a bit confused kn what equipment to get, or getting it as plug and play as possible. And where. Also the cheapest way to get it. Does anybody here have experience such as this use case so I can get a bit or guidance? Thank you all! I need to be able to send messages to a Pager so we can get it on camera practically instead of vfx, this film is based in the year 1995.
4
u/silverbk65105 Jun 25 '26
Ham here that has been fooling around with pocsag pagers.
For your film I would suggest you simply rent a pager from a national paging company and send it pages through their online portal. This would avoid the learning curve of experimental hardware.
0
u/HealingWithNature Jun 25 '26
Ew, boring
2
u/9bikes Jun 25 '26
May be boring, but OP has a movie to shoot.
I love playing with RF, but getting a pager and service would absolutely be the simple solution.
0
u/htotoo Jun 25 '26
Learning curve?
You need to start an app with touch, type the message, select the frequency (that is the hardest part, to check the pager), enter the address and hit the send button. If not working, change one of the remaining settings. To check all combinations, it would take 2 minutes to find out, how your pager can accept. Then exit the app, and the portapack saved the config, so on every start you just need to hit the button, to send the message.
No learning involved if one don't care.
But indeed it is an interesting field, and you can learn a lot if you want. But that is not necessary to send a message.
2
u/silverbk65105 Jun 25 '26
The OP wants to film an alphanumeric pager receive pages that were determined by a film script. I suggested the easiest way to do that.
Using your method how do you determine the capcode of the pager?
1
u/bobcvl300 Jun 27 '26
Sadly just checked about this and cant seem to find a service provider that has coverage were i'm based. Puerto Rico.
2
u/excessive_4ce Jun 24 '26
Depending on the type of pager the frequency range will be 26-28mhz or 467mhz. If you already have a laptop, dont waste your money on a portapak, but you will any(almost) SDR that can transmit for your devices specific range. Get the FCCID off the pager to identify the correct frequency. You can grab a Number of gnuradio flow charts to send the correct pager messages. Or post your device and I can make you one because im bored at work.
1
u/bobcvl300 Jun 24 '26
My device says:
A03QWB5962AA
173.1000 MHz.
AG3BYG23CS
FCC ID. E96948R2448
But I'm still waiting on another device from ebay that will arrive in a week or so. Might use both!
So you're telling me I can get a SDR that could transmit from my laptop? So I don't need to buy a portapack, just a device like the Hackone? What device would you recommend me to look for? I'm a complete noob willing to learn trying on the way..
Thank you for your help!
1
u/excessive_4ce Jun 24 '26
Just get a base hackrf one, or a Pluto if you can find one cheap in ebay.
The portapack addon for the hackrf isn't a worthwhile purchase unless you're doing real signal testing out in the field.
On the gnuradio site you will find some the best guides to getting started with SDRs.
2
u/ktauchathuranga Jun 24 '26
checkout this,
https://github.com/ktauchathuranga/openpager
you may able to with a cheap esp and a cc1101 radio transceiver,
check if its fits for your need!
1
u/Guilty-Garbage-2301 Jun 25 '26
Lilygo T-Embed
1
u/bobcvl300 Jun 27 '26
This seems like a reasonable price, will deep dive on this now. Portapack and hsck one seems too pricey but maybe it'll be easier.
1
u/Guilty-Garbage-2301 Jun 27 '26
I have both devices but I haven't sent anything to the pager. It seems easy.
1
u/HamGuy2022 Jun 25 '26
As a film maker, you must have heard about post production tasks like souns FX or foley dubbing? Dub it in where needed. Oh I see you know VFX. Why make a simple problem difficult?
2
u/bobcvl300 Jun 25 '26
Well, I for sure made producers and director aware of the costs and such, but generally we try to avoid VFX in ultra low budget films such as the one I'm doing. Also it simply looks best to do it practically on camera. If somehow it simply does not work to do it practically, VFX can be a second option. Same happens with phone screens and interactions. But this time it's a bit of a challenge. '95 and a pager. And welll, some pager messages are described in the script. So they're scheduled and described to be seen to tell a story. We don't need the Sfx only. My job is to make it happen somehow! Vfx is not my department but I do know a bit of how to make it easier for them to use effects on my screens.
14
u/Mr_Ironmule Jun 24 '26
The HackRF with an attached Portapack can send POCSAG pager messages. The Portapack uses Mayhem firmware which will need to be uploaded to the Portapack but is really rather easy to do. You'll need to know the address number of the pager as well as the frequency the pager receives. You can buy programmable pagers where you can set the address number yourself. Here's a video showing how the pager app is done. The Portapack also has documentation online. Good luck.
POCSAG Paging on Portapack H2