I just found out about the unication G5 devices and I’m not really sure what they do can someone give me a high level overview? Where could this fit in with my sds100? All I monitor is the Mississippi MSWIN p25P2 700mhz system.
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Unication G5
- Thread starter Ronnierozier2
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There is a unification section here in RR. It does everything the SDS does, but in the size of a pager, with more battery life! you get what you pay for, I paid just as much for my G5 as I did for my SDS200.
The biggest difference between the two is that the Unication pagers can only monitor one site at a time, and also a maximum of 64 talkgroups. You can program additional sites, and more sets of talkgroups that can be selected, but it only handles the one site/set of talkgroups, at one time. If everything you are interested in is on the Leflore County site, and your list is 64 TGIDs (or less), then it should work. But you would not be able to simultaneously monitor additional sites, or adjacent counties, all at the same time.
Dealer here.
If you only want to monitor 700/800, then look into the G4 and not the G5.
Both the G4 and G5 can monitor 700/800, but the G5 gives you an additional sub band in the VHF or UHF Range that you pick when you purchase the pager. If you do not need VHF or UHF and only need 700/800, save yourself around $90 on the purchase and go for the G4.
The G-Series pagers are pagers. They were built for the public safety service and not for the commercial market, but as a dealer, I sell almost as many to FD and other public safety entities as I sell to the consumer market. They are great devices for the scanning hobby and certainly go hand and hand with public safety monitoring as long as you learn to work around what might be it's limitations (depending on your needs).
Conventional:
DMR:
P25 & Trunking:
If you have any questions, let me know. If you want a quote on a unit, send me a DM (I recommend asking for a quote if you are interested). And for anyone unaware, Unication will be raising the pricing on their equipment on 9/1, so buy now before the pricing increases. Pricing on pagers is going to go up around $20
If you only want to monitor 700/800, then look into the G4 and not the G5.
Both the G4 and G5 can monitor 700/800, but the G5 gives you an additional sub band in the VHF or UHF Range that you pick when you purchase the pager. If you do not need VHF or UHF and only need 700/800, save yourself around $90 on the purchase and go for the G4.
The G-Series pagers are pagers. They were built for the public safety service and not for the commercial market, but as a dealer, I sell almost as many to FD and other public safety entities as I sell to the consumer market. They are great devices for the scanning hobby and certainly go hand and hand with public safety monitoring as long as you learn to work around what might be it's limitations (depending on your needs).
Conventional:
- Conventional channels must be setup in a Zone/Key (Z/K) configuration before it can be defined in a scan list.
- Conventional Scan lists are limited to 16 channels.
- The pager will alert on multiple 2-Tone timing, supports 5/6 tones and MDC alert. It will also alert based on P25 Trunking tone alerts.
- The pager can scan analog and p25 conventional at the same time.
- The pager can be upgraded for a small fee to include DMR tier I and II reception too. This means you can scan DMR, P25, and Analog in a conventional scan list.
DMR:
- The pager cannot scan DMR Tier III, which means no trunking on DMR
- In order to scan TS1 and TS2, you must setup the two TS into their own Z/K as any other analog channel and then setup a scan list that includes both TS1 and TS2 Z/K definition.
P25 & Trunking:
- The pager can only trunk on P25
- The pager can be setup for multiple sites on a trunk system, but will lock onto a site and will not move from that site until it loses reception or the quality degrades to a point where the scanner knows it needs to move. This may not be a problem if you never have to leave sites, but can be a problem if the TG's you monitor are setup so you have to monitor multiple sites. If that is the case, then you need to setup your pager's programming so that you only have 1 site on the Z/K config and assign those talk groups to those sites.
- Scan lists max out at 64 TG's
- 2-tone style alerting is supported
- The pager operates in 8 Channel Knob configurations and can be "recycled" as you switch through Zones.
- You can hold on any talk group for as long as you want
- There is no DELAY at the end of any transmission and the pager will go back into scan immediately after the TG or frequency is dropped. I've asked Unication to add this function into the pager and they tell me it is with Taiwan to add to the FW. If you feel this is important, please email info@unication.com and tell them you want a Scan Resume Delay added to future FW's.
- You cannot scan between multiple sites on the same trunk system.
- You cannot scan between conventional and trunking on the same scan list
- Unit has the ability to record any transmission that is assigned to a talk group
- Pager can record any "paged" transmission like a normal pager
- Include Bluetooth
- Programming cable / charger and wall wart are included, as is a belt clip
- I recommend a desktop charger so you don't add any additional stress onto the USB plug, plus its a lot easier to charge in the charger than always putting the cable in the right way, wrong way, right way again before it fits into the port.
- Color display is nice and sharp
- Audio is LOUD for it's size
- It's a public safety designed device, so drop it and dunk it and don't worry about a fall from your desk or a dip in the pool breaking the device (within reason)
If you have any questions, let me know. If you want a quote on a unit, send me a DM (I recommend asking for a quote if you are interested). And for anyone unaware, Unication will be raising the pricing on their equipment on 9/1, so buy now before the pricing increases. Pricing on pagers is going to go up around $20
Another, somewhat dated, article on using the Unication pager as a scanner is found here. The Unication forum link is here. As has been stated, the one handicap is that you cannot scan more than one site on any given Knob Position. You will need to determine what MSWIN sites carry the agencies and talkgroups you wish to monitor. As such, changing from one site to another requires a change to a different Knob or Zone. That said, the Unications are built like a tank given that their primary use is by Public Safety agencies. Performance is stellar!
I have to give a shout-out to East Coast Pagers, that is where I bought mine. Phil was excellent to work with and answered any questions I had. Have the G5 and use it daily to monitor the agencies around me. Solid radio.
palmerjrusa
Member
I've owned a G5 for a couple or so weeks now.
It's not a scanner so lacks some scanner features, but there are workarounds I've come up with.
As for basic performance, sensitivity etc. it just blows my Unidens and TRX-1 out the water.
It receives and decodes P25 systems right out the box with its own little antenna that my actual scanners need tuned antennas for, even then they're struggling.
The difference is really stark, like night and day.
The G5 is also built like the proverbial tank, has great audio, and phenomenal battery life.
The G5 is now my "go to" mobile "scanner".
The G5's sofware can seem a little intimidating at first but after a couple or so hours everything clicks and programming the G5 is a piece of cake.
Bought my G5 from Ray's Pagers and received great service, highly recommended.
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Do you have to use a computer to program it or can it be done by hand ,...TY
scanner92us
Member
All programing is done in the software.
so here is the deal. my local P25 traffic bounces around 3 sites so i have to monitor all three sites to hear all traffic. not its not simulcast either.....
The small town I reside in is basically in the center of those three sites. I have heard that the G5 can only monitor 1 site at a time?? i'm trying to determine if it would be better to get a G5 or another SDS100
The small town I reside in is basically in the center of those three sites. I have heard that the G5 can only monitor 1 site at a time?? i'm trying to determine if it would be better to get a G5 or another SDS100
So your agency only affiliates with 1 of the 3 sites at any given time? or are they on 2 of the 3 at any given time? Since their dispatch center does not move there should always be traffic on at least 1 common site while the other two maybe in use while officers are out in the field.
that’s what I can’t figure out is how it all works. It’s like it is rolling around all three sites. I hear dispatch on all three sites. Its random on which site I hear the traffic on. I only have 1 scanner so I cannot test and see if it’s being broadcast on all three sites at the same time and my scanner is just locking onto the first tower it hears traffic 🤷🏻♂️ I’m scared to purchase a G5 because of the fact it can only monitor 1 site at a time u til I can figure this out.
maybe I’m completely wrong but from what I read about P25 systems is if you have many towers and radios from the same department are affiliated with different towers then you hear the same traffic on all sites where there are affiliated radios. I wish one of the experts would chime in on this and sort it all out 😂😂😂
Affiliation by a radio on a particular talkgroup & site really has no bearing on whether the network will allow that talkgroup to be allowed on neighboring sites. With my G5, I have 8 sites programmed in the zone/channels for talkgroups I'm most interested in. When I'm home, the
G5 runs on the site closest to me. When I'm mobile, it transparently moves to another site when I'm in another area. I find that preferable to having a zone/channel limited to each site separately because it then involves a lot of knob turning when driving. Also, for P25 700/800 I haven't found a better receiver. The programming of the G4/G5 radios does have somewhat of a learning curve. Helps to have either friends who have the radio or a dealer that's able to offer some initial support. BTW, I have G5's with VHF or UHF in different units and I find the conventional frequency performance of these radios about as good as you'd expect from conventional scanners. You just can't mix P25 and conventional in a zone/channel in the G5. If I need that for some reason, I use more than one receiver.
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N1SQB
Member
That is true if you're talking about P25 trunked systems. I have P25 single channels mixed in with analog channels in all my G3's zones.
Thanks for pointing that out. I replaced the occurrence of "receiver" with G5
@Ronnierozier2 I assume your talking about the MSWIN system. Looking at the data base it appears the closest site to you is actually the Carroll County MS site. Morgan City appears south of you for the sites that are listed in your county. Do you know what your locked on when listening at home ?
In a multicast system, traffic for a particular talk group is only transmitted on a site when an affiliated subscriber using the talk group is within the service area of the site. If the user has moved into the service area of another site, the traffic would follow to the new site and cease to be transmitted on the original site if no other resources on the original site are affiliated with the tg. There are cases when it might be advantageous for talk groups to be strapped to transmit on several sites when a wider area of situational awareness is required.
If you have the ability to listen to all the sites then you should also have the ability to hold on a site and monitor it.
Your scanner should be able to hold on a site. What scanner do you have?
N6ML
Member
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- Sep 26, 2008
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OP said SDS100. Could do site hold, but then how would you know if you're missing traffic that's only going out on a different site?
Therefore, the need for multiple scanners. Someday, perhaps many years from now, a scanner will exist with multiple virtual tuners that can simultaneously monitor several sites and frequencies, convert the audio to text and send it to your computer for storage and later retrieval. But I'm just dreaming of course!
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