Abstract: Signal processing circuitry receives input signals representing modulation encoded binary data signals. The signal processing circuitry contains a plurality of signal quality detectors which monitor a corresponding plurality of different characteristics of each received signal to determine whether or not the signal is of an adequate quality insofar as concerns the characteristic of the signal associated with each detector. Each detector generates a binary output signal representing a confidence level pointer associated with each such received signal. The pointer signals are stored in a buffer with received data signals. The contents of the buffer, which at this time contain the bytes of the received data record as well as the associated pointer bytes, are made available to a control module.