Auto set time on AlphaPOC style pagers

Here is where you can get help with using and setting up POCSAG and related topics
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WA1OKB
Posts: 14
Joined: Mon Mar 23, 2020 5:11 am

Auto set time on AlphaPOC style pagers

Post by WA1OKB » Fri Sep 23, 2022 2:02 am

So, I had purchased an Alphapoc style pager (the typical Chinese clone on ebay Model GP2009N)
and it works great.... But one thing I noted, supposedly if you add RIC 224 in slot 8 it will automatically set the pager's clock to local time.

Well, turns out that's not QUITE accurate.... It will set it to the local time of whatever DAPNET host you're connecting to... so in my case, it was setting my pager to the time in Germany.... I could use RIC 216 and have it use UTC.... But I REALLY wanted it to set to LOCAL time of my Pi-Star hotspot.... so, here's the solution I came up with.

First... I blacklisted 224 in the POCSAG config in Pi-Star
Then I wrote this small python script

you can get it at http://github.com/mytechguyri/pocsag-local-time

So, what I've effectively done is blocked the DAPNET RIC224 Germany local time message, and replaced it with my own using my Pi-Star's ACTUAL local time... now my pager gets its TRUE local time
Last edited by WA1OKB on Mon Feb 26, 2024 8:10 pm, edited 1 time in total.

pd2hsb
Posts: 1
Joined: Sun Sep 25, 2022 6:16 pm

Re: Auto set time on AlphaPOC style pagers

Post by pd2hsb » Tue Sep 27, 2022 6:42 pm

Nice solution, love scripted solutions!

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WA1OKB
Posts: 14
Joined: Mon Mar 23, 2020 5:11 am

Re: Auto set time on AlphaPOC style pagers

Post by WA1OKB » Mon Feb 26, 2024 8:08 pm

For those who come across this thread... I've done significant updates to my original time fix. Now it actually sends the time in the correct designated timeslot for your DAPNET transmitter... please get the latest version at http://github.com/mytechguyri/pocsag-local-time

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