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"Out of range" when in amplified charging cradle

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jc53593

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When I put either of my Unication G5 VHF pagers in to the amplified charging cradle, it repetitively flip-flops between "Out of range" and working OK. The other pager, sitting on the shelf right next to the cradle, works just fine. I swap the pagers and the problem always happens with the one that is in the cradle. Has anyone else hit this and found a solution other than buying a new amplified charging cradle? (This will be my second time having to replace the amplified charging cradle in two years, but it's the only way I know of to get the audio out of the pager to my Internet streamer.)
 

tipster67

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I just want to thank you for this post. I have been seeing the same thing. It’s not always, but it is often. Because I am old, I just can’t seem to remember if it was doing this before firmware 1.20. Again, thanks, I really thought it was just me.
 

jc53593

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I just want to thank you for this post. I have been seeing the same thing. It’s not always, but it is often. Because I am old, I just can’t seem to remember if it was doing this before firmware 1.20. Again, thanks, I really thought it was just me.

Mine are both on firmware v1.10.
 

KevinC

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I would suspect it's either noise generated by the charger in the VHF range or the internal antenna is being shielded by the charger.

Have you tried an external antenna on the charger to see if that makes a difference,?
 

yfdgricker

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Yes, my G5 does that as well when it is in the amplified charging cradle. Mine has done that since I bought it and through several firmware versions.
 

jc53593

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Antenna setups please? Our antenna or outdoor?

Indoors up on a shelf in my "office" at home, 2nd floor of vinyl sided house, on top of a hill about 3/4 mile away from one of the simulcast system tower sites. The stock whip antenna is attached to the amplified charging cradle. The amplified charging cradle worked well for quite some time (a year?) and then developed this problem where the pager goes RF deaf when in the cradle. Two pagers do it when in the cradle and work fine when out of the cradle. I have now swapped in another amplified charging cradle and the problem doesn't exist with the new one.
 

bob550

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I only have the standard charging cable, but I'd have to assume there are similar spring-loaded contacts at the bottom. Make sure no contacts are stuck in the depressed position. Also, try gently cleaning each contact with a pencil eraser, and while you're at it, also clean the contacts on the pager.
 

IAmSixNine

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The OP pretty much just let us know he has a defective amplified charger.
"I have now swapped in another amplified charging cradel and the problem doesnt exist with the new one"
Contact unitcation and see if you can send it back for repair / replacement. Even if out of warranty maybe they offer a repair service. Heck the engineering team may be interested in why it failed.
 

krokus

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It sounds like you are monitoring a trunked system, on 800 MHz. The charger's antenna is moot, for that. I had to put a Remtronix 800 MHZ antenna on one of the G4 we use for house bells, as it was going out of range on a regular basis. (This was before Unication introduced their gain antenna.)

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jc53593

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I only have the standard charging cable, but I'd have to assume there are similar spring-loaded contacts at the bottom. Make sure no contacts are stuck in the depressed position. Also, try gently cleaning each contact with a pencil eraser, and while you're at it, also clean the contacts on the pager.

Yeah, that's actually how I solved a different problem... The first amplified charging cradle that I bought would fail to grab the RX audio from the pager (audio would still come out the pager's speaker rather than the cradle's front speaker or audio connector on the back). The green "pager" light on top of the amplified cradle also wouldn't light up anymore. After "exercising" the springs in each of the contacts and cleaning them off, that problem went away.

For those scoring along at home: I now own (3) amplified charging cradles. #1 is currently in service (the one where I exercised/cleaned the pins), #2 has the "out of range" problem, and #3 is brand new, in the box for when #1 finds a new way to stop working. Hopefully there's a solution to fix the "out of range" issue as well, so I can have that as the spare for when the current in-service unit develops a problem. ;-)

(...and yes, I never declare a charging cradle as OOS until it fails the same way with both pagers for at least 12 hours, and I verify with a few other people that they're not seeing any problems with the VHF trunked system I'm monitoring.)
 

krokus

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Same programming in both pagers? (To make sure the one in the base is not searching for a CC on a invalid freq.)

What about having a desense issue, with the better antenna?

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jc53593

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Same programming in both pagers? (To make sure the one in the base is not searching for a CC on a invalid freq.)

What about having a desense issue, with the better antenna?

Yup, same programming in both pagers. My morning routine involves swapping the two pagers. One goes in the amplified cradle, the other goes on my belt, back and forth each morning. The two pagers behaved equivalently for many months regardless of which one was in which position, until one evening (through the next morning) the one in the cradle kept going "out of range." I swapped the pager and the one in the cradle kept doing it.

I would welcome anyone who has hit this same problem to let me know (A) I'm not the only one who has encountered it and (B) whether they found a solution other than swapping out the amplified charging cradle.
 

hiddenrun

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jc53593

Have you tried to do a hard reset on the G5 Pager? I have had this take care of an odd problem with an amplified charger.

Reset by removing the battery on the pager for a few minutes or using the 3 button reset method.
 
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