diff --git a/src/main/java/eu/mihosoft/freerouting/designforms/specctra/DsnFile.java b/src/main/java/eu/mihosoft/freerouting/designforms/specctra/DsnFile.java
index 181f6ea..3477269 100644
--- a/src/main/java/eu/mihosoft/freerouting/designforms/specctra/DsnFile.java
+++ b/src/main/java/eu/mihosoft/freerouting/designforms/specctra/DsnFile.java
@@ -79,7 +79,7 @@ public class DsnFile
             }
             if (!keyword_ok)
             {
-                FRLogger.warn("DsnFile.read: specctra dsn file format expected");
+                FRLogger.warn("DsnFile.read: the input file is not in a Specctra DSN file format. It must be a text file starting with the '(pcb' character array.");
                 return ReadResult.ERROR;
             }
         }
diff --git a/src/main/java/eu/mihosoft/freerouting/designforms/specctra/SpecctraFileScanner.java b/src/main/java/eu/mihosoft/freerouting/designforms/specctra/SpecctraFileScanner.java
index 04cce05..bd25906 100644
--- a/src/main/java/eu/mihosoft/freerouting/designforms/specctra/SpecctraFileScanner.java
+++ b/src/main/java/eu/mihosoft/freerouting/designforms/specctra/SpecctraFileScanner.java
@@ -1403,8 +1403,7 @@ class SpecctraFileScanner implements Scanner {
           }
         case 230: break;
         case 2: 
-          { throw new Error("Illegal character <"+
-                                                    yytext()+">");
+          { throw new Error("Illegal character '"+yytext()+"' was found at position " + zzCurrentPos);
           }
         case 231: break;
         case 95: