diff --git a/aprslib/parsing.py b/aprslib/parsing.py
index 37223b4..fbe9596 100644
--- a/aprslib/parsing.py
+++ b/aprslib/parsing.py
@@ -65,6 +65,25 @@ MTYPE_TABLE_CUSTOM = {
     }
 
 
+def _unicode_packet(packet):
+    # attempt utf-8
+    try:
+        return packet.decode('utf-8')
+    except UnicodeDecodeError:
+        pass
+
+    # attempt to detect encoding
+    res = chardet.detect(packet.split(b':', 1)[-1])
+    if res['confidence'] > 0.7:
+        try:
+            return packet.decode(res['encoding'])
+        except UnicodeDecodeError:
+            pass
+
+    # if everything fails
+    return packet.decode('latin-1')
+
+
 def parse(packet):
     """
     Parses an APRS packet and returns a dict with decoded data
@@ -83,15 +102,7 @@ def parse(packet):
 
     # attempt to detect encoding
     if isinstance(packet, bytes):
-        try:
-            packet = packet.decode('utf-8')
-        except UnicodeDecodeError:
-            res = chardet.detect(packet.split(b':', 1)[-1])
-
-            if res['confidence'] > 0.7:
-                packet = packet.decode(res['encoding'])
-            else:
-                packet = packet.decode('latin-1')
+        packet = _unicode_packet(packet)
 
     packet = packet.rstrip("\r\n")
     logger.debug("Parsing: %s", packet)