G5 w/ UHF C - Amplified charger question

[David628]

Hi all,

My G5 and amplified charger arrived today from Rays. Shoutout to Ray's for his stellar customer service! Super fast shipping and great communications BTW.

Anyways, I tested both the G5 and my old G4 in the amplified charger and it works flawless on my states DTRS. Perfect clarity in sound. Set the G5 to a local P25 400mhz federal trunked system and the signal bars were full and heard the TG's just fine. I then placed the G5 in the amplified charger and the signal went from all bars to zero out of range. Stock antenna is installed on the amplified charger and everything seems to be powered up just fine.

Anyone else experience this and if so are there any troubleshooting solutions you recommend?

Edit to add: Im on the most current public release version of the PPS and firmware.

 

[David628]

I figured it out. The (my specific) little new stock collapsable BNC antenna that comes with the new amplified charger is defective. I connected a Remtronix and a stock Uniden scanner BNC antenna to it and its working perfectly on the UHF C band system. Guess that included BNC antenna is just trash.

 

[pro106import]

I have trouble with my Amplified charger also. I notified Unication back in December, and they said they know about the problem it causes and they are working on the problem. I have heard absolutely nothing back. The charger causes a high noise floor on certain segments of the UHF band. Its not a specific problem to my particular unit, it is with all of them. Other people complained about the same thing. Here is the thread I started back in December 2020.

G5 deaf above 483Mhz.?

Phil, (LIE) you may be able to confirm this being close proximity to Nassau's P25 500mhz.system and NYC. OK I have a G5 with the secondary band being 450-512. When use it with the amplified charger, I can plug in my UHF Yagi in the back of the amplifier, and the G5 now uses the UHF antenna when...

forums.radioreference.com

One of my posts from there:

"Just curious how you made out with charger #3.
Upon further testing and now that I have had my unit for a couple of weeks, I am becoming more familiar with its capabilities, and I have come to the following conclusion. The radio ( I like calling it a radio as I don't use any of the pager features ) is NOT deaf above 483 Mhz. as I originally had thought. I have programmed in several freqs. in the T band ( 470-512 ) and just sitting on my deck outside, I am able to receive FDNY and NYC EMS ect.. in that range. My other UHF commercial portables receive them slightly better, but you would have to expect this being the G5 just has an internal antenna for the extra band. Also, I actually CAN hear the NYC DOITT P25 UHF system also just sitting on my deck outside. The control channel is presently 483.24375. I am 60 miles from NYC, albeit in a great high location feet from the Long Island Sound. My point is this. When I use the Amplified Charger, I can now say for sure it is the cause of the high noise floor in that frequency range. The noise floor is exceeding the input signal from my Yagi that is plugged into the back of the amplifier. Its too bad I cannot use the outside antenna feature on the amplifier. I hope Unication can fix this problem, unless it is just that I have a bad amplifier? I am going to post this on the Facebook forum also to see if I can get a response from Unication."

 

[David628]

Well I guess I spoke to soon. Today after a few hours of testing the G5 on the lower end of UHF C (P25 trunked system within 400-420Mhz) in the amplified charger its still doing what I indicated in post #1 above. Out of the charger the G5 is working flawlessly on both 700/800 and UHF C. In the amplified charger the G5 is working flawlessly on the 700-800 band but on UHF C in the Amplified charger the G5 keeps reverting to zero reception bars and alerts to out of range. It's not the antenna.

 

[AzTac]

I'm experiencing a similar problem. I place my old G4 (running V1.10) in the amplified charger and it works flawlessly. I place my new G4 (running V1.31) in the same amplified charger and it loses all bars and gives an "out of range" indication. It does this on all systems/talkgroups. I spoke to Ray at his eponymous business and he indicated Unication is aware of it and referred me to them. I heard nothing back from Unication.

I love these receivers, but it does seem like Unication goes through a flurry of communication and then crickets for extended periods of time. We're currently experiencing a cricket infestation...

 

[pro106import]

I'm experiencing a similar problem. I place my old G4 (running V1.10) in the amplified charger and it works flawlessly. I place my new G4 (running V1.31) in the same amplified charger and it loses all bars and gives an "out of range" indication. It does this on all systems/talkgroups. I spoke to Ray at his eponymous business and he indicated Unication is aware of it and referred me to them. I heard nothing back from Unication.

I love these receivers, but it does seem like Unication goes through a flurry of communication and then crickets for extended periods of time. We're currently experiencing a cricket infestation...

Same here with the crickets. They convinced me to hold onto mine and don't return it because they were working on the problem. That was 3 months ago (and more some) and still nothing. Still waiting forever for a firmware update that allows scanning, but I guess that's another story. Not complaining, just hoping for an answer one way or the other.