Anyone using a Unication G4/G5 to monitor GATRRS in Austin?

[dc2wheel]

I'm currently using an older PSR-500 to scan the GATRRS system in Austin, and while it's working decently from a fixed location, it's not functional while mobile. My understanding is that this is likely due to the simulcast nature of the system, and that a more modern/capable scanner would likely work better. Is anyone currently using a Unication G4 or G5 on GATRRS and if so would you recommend it? Leaning toward the Unications over Uniden or Whistler products due to improved durability as well as positive feedback from users in other cities using simulcast systems.

 

[IAmSixNine]

I use a G4 in the DFW area and love it. If your not going to be monitoring non P25 trunking or making on the fly changes the G4 are excellent. I also have an SDS100 as i monitor VHF, UHF, DMR, DMR Trunking as well. So both are great for what they need to be used for.

 

[KevinC]

While I don’t live in Austin I’ve used my G5 there many times with spectacular results.

 

[KTR722]

I have a G5 and use it in ATX while mobile, it works very well with simulcast systems here in the area. Sound quality is great and solid.

However, one thing to note about the G5, it will only "scan" talkgroups from a single trunk site at a time.

You will need to be aware of this limitation when programming the G5.

If you add multiple sites onto the same zone/channel knob position (the 8-channel knob switch on top of the G5), the G5 will search for the site with the best signal and lock onto that site...and will remain on that site until it determines another site is closer.

Example: you add Sim 7 (Travis), Sim 20 (Wilco) and Sim 40 (Bastrop) all into the same knob position. You can add up to 64 talk groups per knob position so you put in talk groups for all three counties. if you are traveling from Austin towards Pflugerville/South Round Rock and pick up a close-by Wilco tower, the G5 will switch from Sim 7 to Sim 20 and you suddenly only hear wilco talk groups. It does not matter that you have Travis county talkgroups in the codeplug at this point, they will be mute on your G5 because the tower you are connected to is not rebroadcasting transmissions from it.

In other words, if you are buying a G5 to listen to more than one county at the same time, the G5 is not for you.

LCRA P25 is even more "fun"...since it is not simulcast. I actually programmed the knob to select towers and not talk groups for LCRA on my G5. I have knob position 1 setup to scan for closest tower anywhere on the LCRA P25 system but sometimes you are on a tower that may only be catching the dispatcher and none of the other traffic on a particular talkgroup. I use Positions 2-8 to "force" the G5 to only connect to a specific tower.

Example: your G5 is connected to the Dripping Springs or Austin LCRA tower and you want to hear San Marcos FD. You will sometimes hear the dispatcher toning out but none of the other radio traffic. You will need to force the G5 to connect to another tower (San Marcos or Wimberley towers) to hear the actual fire ground chatter.

This same programming goes with GATRRS VHF western region (Llano, Burnet, Blanco counties) as LCRA P25.

 

[JTexas539]

The G5 works great on GATRRS, you just have to know how to program it so you hear the talkgroups you want on the towers you are closet to that carry those TGs.

Its not too terribly hard but I recommend grabbing an SDR dongle and using SDRTRUNK to help you find what sites the TGs you want to monitor are active on. If you have RR premium you can load each site and all the TG alias straight into SDRTRUNK. Then once you know the control channel get rid of all the rest of the freqs and because sdrtrunk has a habit of jumping around for no reason if it has multiple CC freqs instead of just the current one being used.

KTR722 Explained it pretty well so I don't think there is much to add except you may have to experiment with monitoring different sites until you get it programmed just right for you. Its easier if you are at home instead of mobile but you will still have to figure out whats where as far as which TGs are active on which sites. Like I said, SDRtrunk can really make that easier.