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Has Anybody Compared The 800 Mhz Receiver Performance Of The Unication G4/G5 To The Uniden SDS100?

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JASII

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As posted above, I am just wondering if anybody has compared the receiver performance of the Unication G4/G5 to the Uniden SDS100? Right now I am in Remer MN, which is in Cass County Minnesota. I tried listening to the Minnesota ARMER system, which is a trunked 800 Mhz system and none of the control channels were all that strong. I assume the Unication is better, but how much better? Anecdotal evidence is okay, but if anybody here has connected them to a service monitor, that would probably be better still.

Unfortunately, the SDS100 is only using the OEM antenna at the moment. I should have packed an 800 Mhz gain antenna!
 

DJ11DLN

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I have no idea about the Unication, though I purchased one today but won't have hands on until it arrives. But all of the OEM scanner antennas are pretty dismal, they're too big of a compromise to be able to receive such a wide span of frequencies. Get the Remtronix 800 and you should see a pretty big difference on those 800 MHz frequencies. I would guess that the Unication, being basically a single-band radio (the analog pager antenna is internal I believe) would have a single-band antenna that would probably perform better as well.
 

GTO_04

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You will see a big difference between the stock SDS100 antenna and the Remtronix 800, with the reception using the Remtronix being much better.

GTO_04
 
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gtaman

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The Unication should be identical to the BK KNG and any other radio. It should perform better due to it actually listening to every bit of the control channel and not sitting on the repeater hangtime. If you notice it will mute immediately after a transmission instead of sitting on the link.
 

Hit_Factor

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I have had both monitoring the same system. They were about neck and neck, with an edge toward the G5. Here in Berrien County, MPSCS has a very good signal, no LSM, and both radios worked without an antenna attached (of course, the worked better with the factory antenna).

The G5 has nothing on the SDS100 when it comes to all the other things it does as a scanner and with location based scanning. It's really apples to oranges when you compare the overall capabilities.

The G5 sounds better to my screwed up ears. The SDS100 would squeal a bit more often, bad decodes I think.

I think Uniden has lost key personnel and there is no indication that someone has stepped up. My second G5 arrives on Friday, and both of the SDS100s I had are gone. I'm really only interested in LEO P25 TRS. My Icom R-30, and ID-51 Plus 2, receive everything else I want to hear.
 

sparklehorse

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I don’t have a service monitor, but anecdotally my G5 definitely outperforms my SDS100 on weak, distant p25 700/800 trunked systems. There’s two systems south of me, 40 miles distant or more, that my G5 can decode pretty much flawlessly using a yagi antenna. On the same antenna the SDS100 is very sporadic on one system and can’t find the control channel for the other. I suspect the problem has more to do with selectivity rather than sensitivity, as that is a known Achilles heel for the SDS. It’s likely there’s nearby strong control channels, near in distance and near in frequency, that are interfering. I’ve tried all the filter settings on the SDS but to no avail. As others mentioned though, swapping the stock antenna out for the Remtronix will almost certainly help your SDS on 800MHz. And yes the SDS has many, many features the Unication G5 lacks. That said, Unication recently released a very significant firmware update that has added talkgroup hold, and talkgroup lockout capabilities to the radio, as well as finally making BlueTooth a useful feature. It’s not quite a true scanner yet, but it has gotten much closer. Plus the G5 is just a well made, rugged little radio that does its job very well.
.
 

JD21960

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Your answer is on YouTube. There are several videos comparing the two, long distance reception and mobile fun too.
 

scannerboy02

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I have both and the Unication outperforms the SDS by quite a bit on distant systems. I can pull in sites from every system surrounding my home county on the Unication while the SDS will only get a few of them.

If you need to hear distant systems I would go with the Unication, if you have a strong signal and are only having trouble with simulcast I would go with the SDS.
 

mharris

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There is no real comparison. The G series has professional grade hardware and receiver. The Uniden SDS is a fun radio and does well with simulcast but not even close in receiver performance to the G series.
 

rr60

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With a little band tropo, weekly I decode P25 LSM systems from 90-180 miles away on the stock stubby. The list off systems and sites logged is getting long.

No tropo daily 0-30 miles away easy.
 

CcSkyEye

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I'm also on the ARMER system, I sold my SDS100 when my department switched to the G5. For me, the G5 reception was way better in the metro and west metro counties.
 

WX4JCW

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you will get way better range off a G4/G5 using the little stubby that comes off it, I was clearly decoding sites 30-45 miles out with no problems
I am a fan of the SDS series but with these new firmwares coming out I dunno now its getting tough
 

bberns22

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you will get way better range off a G4/G5 using the little stubby that comes off it, I was clearly decoding sites 30-45 miles out with no problems
I am a fan of the SDS series but with these new firmwares coming out I dunno now its getting tough
Yes my G5 outperforms my SDS100 & 200 on fringe range networks and where the severest of multicast is present. With that said the flexibility of the Unidens’ will not be surpassed no matter what firmware updates Unifcation provides, the multi-band ability, alone, makes the Unidens a must. I travel often and the G5 never comes along it’s always the SDS100 packed in my bag..
 

DanRollman

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The Unication should be identical to the BK KNG and any other radio. It should perform better due to it actually listening to every bit of the control channel and not sitting on the repeater hangtime. If you notice it will mute immediately after a transmission instead of sitting on the link.

How did you come up with this "should be"? My Unication G5 works much better than my SDS100, which in turn works better than any other consumer-grade scanner I have ever used, but my Unication G5 does not decode or sound anywhere near as good as my KNG P800 or my KNG2 P800 radios.

The Unication is awesome, and far superior to any consumer-grade scanner, but it still has more late-entries, decode issues, and audio quality deficits compared to my KNG and KNG2 radios. If I had to chose between them, I'd take my KNG radios hands down from a quality perspective.

But again, the Unication is most definitely superior to a consumer-grade scanner toy. Just not a public safety grade two way radio like a KNG.
 

doc62

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I have both the SDS100 and G5. I was comparing them the other day side by side and found the the SDS100 quite frequently either gave the wrong UID or no UID at all. The G5 was 100% accurate. The SDS100 picked up the same traffic and the audio was decent, but It just could not keep up with decoding the UID's like the G5.
 
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