diff --git a/geomagio/imfv283/IMFV283Parser.py b/geomagio/imfv283/IMFV283Parser.py
index e262e2b665740b97505fe64c8ba1501212135f4e..17552eab3d06a67b0cd7fc761944ac718523dd47 100644
--- a/geomagio/imfv283/IMFV283Parser.py
+++ b/geomagio/imfv283/IMFV283Parser.py
@@ -365,9 +365,9 @@ class IMFV283Parser(object):
 
         for cnt in range(0, 63):
             # Convert 3 byte "pair" into ordinal values for manipulation.
-            byte3 = msg[offset + ness_byte + 2]
-            byte2 = msg[offset + ness_byte + 1]
-            byte1 = msg[offset + ness_byte]
+            byte3 = int(msg[offset + ness_byte + 2])
+            byte2 = int(msg[offset + ness_byte + 1])
+            byte1 = int(msg[offset + ness_byte])
 
             goes_value1 = (byte3 & 0x3F) + ((byte2 & 0x3) * 0x40)
             goes_value2 = ((byte2 // 0x4) & 0xF) + ((byte1 & 0xF) * 0x10)