diff --git a/auto_rx/autorx/decode.py b/auto_rx/autorx/decode.py
index 7378d57..d78b1d0 100644
--- a/auto_rx/autorx/decode.py
+++ b/auto_rx/autorx/decode.py
@@ -370,7 +370,7 @@ class SondeDecoder(object):
 
         else:
             try:
-                _telemetry = json.loads(data)
+                _telemetry = json.loads(data.decode('ascii'))
             except Exception as e:
                 self.log_debug("Line could not be parsed as JSON - %s" % str(e))
                 return False