A question for Unication users...

[AAFC]

Hi guys...

I recently purchased a Unication G4 and I am currently using it to monitor mostly the east Hennepin system. I love the this little thing.... absolutely zero simulcast distortion or garbled audio. The audio from this thing sounds like the audio from an actual police radio.

My question..... When monitoring Bloomington PD, and Bloomington FD, I hear everything without fail...... except initial FD dispatches. I will hear the Fire Chief reply in route, and every subsequent radio transmission after that but I miss the original dispatch transmission. I suspect it's because of the tones attached to the beginning of those original dispatch transmissions. I realize the G4 is actually a voice pager designed to work with fire department paging tones but I know nothing about them. So, the question is, what do I need to change in my settings to receive Fire department dispatches?

Thanks in advance for any information you guy may be able to offer.


A little side story about how well this Unication G4 is working for me on the ARMER system.... (I've only had it a few days)
One of the (many) areas where my GRE and Whistler scanners won't pick up ANYTHING is in Bloomington around the 98th and Lyndale intersection. When I'm in that area with my other scanners, they don't even break squelch when Bloomington PD keys up a radio. Nothing. It's like they are turned off when I'm in that area..... The other night I sat in a parking lot for over 20 minutes near that intersection and listened to the police fighting with a guy in the parking ramp at the Mall Of America for over 20 minutes. The guy tried ramming several squad cars with his car, the cops tazed him and shot him with 3 pepper balls and the guy was still fighting with them. Anyway.... I heard EVERY word, of EVERY radio transmission during that entire event on my new G4..... and neither of my other two scanners ever broke squelch that entire time. Not even once. This thing is awesome!

 

[blackbelter]

Does the dispatch have its own frequencies with or without the automated responses ?
I agree with your Unication statement above as the Unication products contain professional processors with mission critical components .

 

[fwfdengine2]

TGID 10966 “BLM-PAGE” has the initial fire dispatch

 

[tglendye]

TGID 10966 “BLM-PAGE” has the initial fire dispatch

I know zero about the system you are monitoring. But in reading your (AAFC's) issue, I was thinking it was more than likely a different TG that was not programmed. I would definitely add this TG. Good luck.

 

[AAFC]

Thanks for all the replies everyone. I will certainly add that additional talkgroup. It's worth a try!

But the weird thing is, I have programmed over a dozen GRE and Whistler scanners for friends and family and I have never had to add additional talkgroups to hear the initial fire dispatch. In the past, If I simply programmed the "Bloomington FD Main" (10810) the scanners would pickup everything, including the initial dispatch. Weird.

 

[AAFC]

Update: Additional talkgroup added. Now just waiting for the next fire call to be dispatched to see if it works.

Thanks fwfdengine2

 

[AAFC]

Update: I just received the first fire call since adding the additional talkgroup and it worked great. Thanks again, fwfdengine2!

On a side note: I am a little embarrassed to admit that I already had that specific talkgroup loaded into my "available" talkgroup list in the PPS software, but I had not actually added it to either the priority, or non-priority lists..... so ecentially it wasn't added at all even though it was available. lol

Thanks guys!

 

[ofd8001]

With Bloomington still being a volunteer based organization, their members are carrying tone and voice pagers (154.070). When they migrated to the trunked system, they added a talkgroup that is hardpatched to this frequency. Kind of typical - we did the same thing here.

 

[AAFC]

With Bloomington still being a volunteer based organization, their members are carrying tone and voice pagers (154.070). When they migrated to the trunked system, they added a talkgroup that is hardpatched to this frequency. Kind of typical - we did the same thing here.

You are correct. I've had multiple friends who either have been, or currently are Bloomington firefighters over the last 30 years. I do remember when the new system was implemented the digital channel was patched with the old VHF analog channel for paging purposes.

After posting this thread and reading fwfdengine2's reply, I realized that I forgot about that specific talkgroup. It's been a long time since I programmed a scanner from scratch. I'm usually just doing copy/paste and never paying much attention to the actual talkgroups. I was honestly thinking that the BFD Main Dispatch talkgroup (10810) was the one that was patched with the old VHF frequency. I completely forgot that there was another talkgroup just for this purpose. (as fwfdengine2 posted with, 10966) This is why I originally posted that in the past I have never had to program additional talkgroups for fire dispatch to work properly..... Well, in reality I was wrong. I DID program the 10966 talkgroup in my previous scanners, but I simply forgot that I did it. lol.

Thanks again to everyone who replied to this thread.

 

[fwfdengine2]

Okay. So you’re not going crazy the VHF channel used to be patched with TG 10810.
In the last year or so Bloomington switched to the automated paging via Us Digital Designs. With this, they repurposed 10966 from fire command to now fire page which is only the outgoing automated dispatches. The members no longer carry VHF pagers. They carry Unication pagers and are alerted via 800 MHZ ARMER radio system on BLM-PAGE

 

[AAFC]

Okay. So you’re not going crazy the VHF channel used to be patched with TG 10810.
In the last year or so Bloomington switched to the automated paging via Us Digital Designs. With this, they repurposed 10966 from fire command to now fire page which is only the outgoing automated dispatches. The members no longer carry VHF pagers. They carry Unication pagers and are alerted via 800 MHZ ARMER radio system on BLM-PAGE

Nope, not going crazy....... yet. lol.

Great information again.
All of my close BFD friends have retired in the last 5-7 years so I don't hear all the current news and info about BFD anymore. The few guys that I know who are still on the department I rarely see or talk to. I had no idea the department finally switched to Digital Unication voice pagers. Thats cool.

Are the Unication Pagers pretty much standard for most volunteer fire departments in Minnesota now? Or do most departments still rely on the old Motorola VHF/UHF voice pagers?

 

[ryolsen8]

Nope, not going crazy....... yet. lol.

Great information again.
All of my close BFD friends have retired in the last 5-7 years so I don't hear all the current news and info about BFD anymore. The few guys that I know who are still on the department I rarely see or talk to. I had no idea the department finally switched to Digital Unication voice pagers. Thats cool.

Are the Unication Pagers pretty much standard for most volunteer fire departments in Minnesota now? Or do most departments still rely on the old Motorola VHF/UHF voice pagers?

All of Anoka County is using the Unication G4 pagers, as well as Red Wing, and Bloomington Fire. These units are still fairly new, and their capabilities are still being "found" if you will by FD's and Counties. Most of Minnesota is still indeed using the traditional VHF Pagers, but digital is where it's going. A lot of Counties are actually getting away from 2-Tone paging all together. Hubbard County has been using Alphanumeric Pagers since the 90's, while Park Rapids Fire still uses 2-Tone Pagers, thus you won't hear any pages on their Fire Main, except Park Rapids Fire. Some places like Winona County, don't have reliable ARMER coverage, so VHF Pagers are the best for them. It just depends on the terrain, area, etc.

 

[ofd8001]

One nuance that could be an issue for fire departments using commercial paging companies is that NFPA standards require emergency dispatch equipment to be under the direct control of the agency. Our department flirted with that and "I Am Responding" and found that the insurance rating agency would "ding" us if we went that route.

All of my close BFD friends have retired in the last 5-7 years so I don't hear all the current news and info about BFD anymore.

Small world. . . I had a cousin who was a BFD firefighter in the '60s until he retired. He is the one who got me interested in the fire service. 39 Years with one department and a minor post retirement gig with another for four years now.