hi ctownsend, the character of "*" and "#" send first every time we want to recieve data. wich means the other data that is not the same as * and # will be rejected (the noise), but after the receiver receive the * and # charater, the next step is receive the data, that means the real data won't be rejected. to make it simple lets make an example,
"I want to make a private party. to keep my party private i need to make a limitation for the guest. so the proximity is the guest has to bring the invitation letter and his/her name listed on my invited list, if the two condition was fullfill then the person must be my guess"
same happen here, if the data coming after * and # that should be the data that i want to receive. hope can help.