Advice on difficulty/ease of programming and use for a G5 for my scenario

[cfegs]

I have a general question regarding the Unication G5. I currently have an SDS100 but I really like the size and what appears to be the rugged construction of the G5. I have been debating buying a G5 but wanted to ask a few questions first.

I live in southern NJ and my county is on P25 Phase II system for all Fire/EMS communications except for Fire dispatch which is still on the old VHF band (Analog). I wanted to know if the G5 is relatively simple to program (using their PPS software similar to the Sentinel software) if I wanted to set up the unit as follows (Positions 1 thru 3 like the Minitor VI series pager and positions 4, 5 like an SDS100 scanner):

Knob position 1: VHF dispatch 2 tone selective call beep alert for my fire dept.
Knob position 2: VHF dispatch 2 tone selective call vibrate alert for my fire dept
Knob position 3: VHF dispatch monitor single frequency
Knob position 4: P25 Trunking monitoring 1 county with 1 system and 2 sites and about 30 TGIDs
Knob position 5: P25 Trunking monitoring 2 counties (both counties are on P25 Ph 2) with 1 system and 2 sites for one county and 1 system and 1 site for the other county and about 55 TGIDs total between both counties
Knob positions 6, 7, 8: same concept as monitoring 2 systems across a few sites to a max of 64 TGIDs

So if the knob is set to position 5 I can scan between 2 different counties across 2 systems and a few sites and this will work just like a favorites list on an SDS 100. I understand Unication is doing a firmware update to add TGID hold which would be great. I am finding that sometimes my SDS100 is locking onto a TGID after they started speaking and part of the message is cut off. Also note that these P25 systems are simulcast systems.

Is it worth the money to buy a G5 since a new firmware update they are working on will make this more “scanner like”? Thanks.

 

[bob550]

Current capabilities for the G5 do not allow scanning between multiple sites in a single knob position, as you have detailed for knobs 4 and 5. The G would lock on to and remain on the better of multiple sites in this scenario, causing you to miss transmissions on the other site. At this point, the only alternative is to program each site into its own knob position with a maximum of 64 talkgroups. That said, the "scanner" firmware upgrade now in beta would allow such a multiple-site configuration. You can read more information regarding the future firmware here.

 

[cfegs]

Current capabilities for the G5 do not allow scanning between multiple sites in a single knob position, as you have detailed for knobs 4 and 5. The G would lock on to and remain on the better of multiple sites in this scenario, causing you to miss transmissions on the other site. At this point, the only alternative is to program each site into its own knob position with a maximum of 64 talkgroups. That said, the "scanner" firmware upgrade now in beta would allow such a multiple-site configuration. You can read more information regarding the future firmware here.

Thank you for the reply. Makes sense and much appreciated.

 

[bob550]

Personally, I will wait for reviews and feedback once the new firmware is released to the public before upgrading my G5. Let others shake out the bugs. Once I'm convinced that there's no negative impact on performance, I'll jump at the opportunity.

 

[cfegs]

Personally, I will wait for reviews and feedback once the new firmware is released to the public before upgrading my G5. Let others shake out the bugs. Once I'm convinced that there's no negative impact on performance, I'll jump at the opportunity.

Yes, I agree. If this new firmware update does what I am hoping it will do and make the G5 more "scanner like", then I will jump and buy one. Thanks for the advice.

 

[bob550]

If you keep an eye on the thread I referenced, you'll find ongoing comments and discussion posted by beta testers which can be informative.