diff --git a/src/apex/plugins/id/__init__.py b/src/apex/plugins/id/__init__.py
index 5a95ba93c020533640a5b42483308bc3811124cb..1e6364e93367e87b06c10f0028d3826229dc010e 100644
--- a/src/apex/plugins/id/__init__.py
+++ b/src/apex/plugins/id/__init__.py
@@ -53,7 +53,7 @@ class IdPlugin(object):
                 port = self.port_map[port_name]
 
                 id_frame = {'source': port['identifier'], 'destination': 'ID', 'path': port['id_path'].split(','),
-                            'text': list(port['id_text'].encode('ascii'))}
+                            'text': port['id_text']}
                 frame_hash = apex.aprs.util.hash_frame(id_frame)
                 if frame_hash not in self.packet_cache.values():
                     self.packet_cache[str(frame_hash)] = frame_hash