Help with Unication info

[bobruzzo]

I am thinking about buying a Unication, from what I have read I am sold. Do they make a version that will run more than 1 site? I understand these radios will only scan 1 site at a time, but can you program say maybe 2 or 3 sites where you can pick any of those to scan? I live on the border of 2 site areas and would like to be able to listen mainly to the Providence RI site, and I am only a few miles south of there. But I live in the NORTH site area and would still want to hear calls from that area as well.

 

[w2lie]

The pager will lock onto a site and will not scan between multiple sites. It will change sites if it loses signal. If you want to monitor a south and north site, you’d need to setup a trunk system with just a north just a south site and then put them in dedicated knob positions to scan or monitor.

 

[jtwalker]

You can either put more than one site in a single knob position and pager will pick one of those sites with acceptable decode, or you can put one site on a knob and another site on another knob. I use both of these methods.

 

[K9KLC]

One site at a time. @jtwalker described one of the ways you can program them, and I do similar but it's still one site at a time. I solved it by getting 2 for when I need to hear things from 2 different sites, When out and about locally I simply switch knob positions to the area I'm in. Careful programming and knowing what's on what site helps a lot when setting it up which obviously may take some digging and programming to get right.

 

[bobruzzo]

One site at a time. @jtwalker described one of the ways you can program them, and I do similar but it's still one site at a time. I solved it by getting 2 for when I need to hear things from 2 different sites, When out and about locally I simply switch knob positions to the area I'm in. Careful programming and knowing what's on what site helps a lot when setting it up which obviously may take some digging and programming to get right.

OK thats easy enough! I only would probably program just 4 zones. So now is this thing very complicated to program? I have an SDS200 and BCD996P2 and totally fluent programming them. Does the Unication come with software or can you download it? I dont need to use any tones or recording and want to just monitor my states P25 system. Keep it simple. Since you can't program these radios from the RR database I assume you would have to set up a zone, then input each individual talkgroup you want? I am probably going to order the G4 next month and in the mean time see if there are any videos on Youtube showing how the software works.

 

[jtwalker]

There is software from Unication available to download, and it will import from RR database with a premium membership.

I think it is a little more complicated than programming a Uniden scanner, but most of the concepts you need to know are the same.

 

[bobruzzo]

There is software from Unication available to download, and it will import from RR database with a premium membership.

I think it is a little more complicated than programming a Uniden scanner, but most of the concepts you need to know are the same.

OK I did find a video from 2021 showing a basic programming scheme. But I scrolled below video and everyone shouting for HELP!!!! So I will try my hand at it and if I have a problem I will post here. One last thing is there a specific place highly recommended where I can buy one of these?

 

[K9KLC]

OK I did find a video from 2021 showing a basic programming scheme. But I scrolled below video and everyone shouting for HELP!!!! So I will try my hand at it and if I have a problem I will post here. One last thing is there a specific place highly recommended where I can buy one of these?

Videos of the current version of software are a little elusive, at least a few months ago when I was looking. Rest assured, there is plenty of help here if you run into a bind.

I purchased all of my pagers used,(3) so I cannot comment on that. I have however dealt with Ray's pagers and East Coast pager for accessories, (ie batteries, drop in charging bases) and they were both great to work with.

 

[RaleighGuy]

One last thing is there a specific place highly recommended where I can buy one of these?

EAST COAST PAGERS is an excellent source, and gives you the best deals and most help.

 

[Nascar18]

Bob, it's a great pager/scanner. It comes with it's own SW. It uses RR to program, you need an account with RR for that to work. I would get the G5 UHF D with the DMR from East Coast Pagers. I would program the 4 zones in each knob position, there are 8 knob positions in the pager. For each knob position or zone you can program 64 TG.Let me know when you get it .

 

[mitbr]

Ray's pagers Trusted Unication Pagers For Sale | Shop Fire & EMS Voice Pagers

 

[kb8q]

I am thinking about buying a Unication, from what I have read I am sold. Do they make a version that will run more than 1 site? I understand these radios will only scan 1 site at a time, but can you program say maybe 2 or 3 sites where you can pick any of those to scan? I live on the border of 2 site areas and would like to be able to listen mainly to the Providence RI site, and I am only a few miles south of there. But I live in the NORTH site area and would still want to hear calls from that area as well.

I live in SE Michigan at the intersection of 4 simulcast systems including Detroit. It’s common for traffic on one of the simulcast systems to also show up on neighboring simulcast sites. The way I accomplish what you‘re looking to do — use 2 radios.

 

[bobruzzo]

Bob, it's a great pager/scanner. It comes with it's own SW. It uses RR to program, you need an account with RR for that to work. I would get the G5 UHF D with the DMR from East Coast Pagers. I would program the 4 zones in each knob position, there are 8 knob positions in the pager. For each knob position or zone you can program 64 TG.Let me know when you get it .

OK thanks for all the info.....how is the G4 different from G5? So the G5 UHF D will let me monitor DMR such as ham and commercial? There's a ton of commercial DMR here and a few DMR ham repeaters. So I could have a separate zone for DMR too?! Wow......

 

[bobruzzo]

Bob, it's a great pager/scanner. It comes with it's own SW. It uses RR to program, you need an account with RR for that to work. I would get the G5 UHF D with the DMR from East Coast Pagers. I would program the 4 zones in each knob position, there are 8 knob positions in the pager. For each knob position or zone you can program 64 TG.Let me know when you get it .

Yes I have a RR account.

 

[bobruzzo]

Bob, it's a great pager/scanner. It comes with it's own SW. It uses RR to program, you need an account with RR for that to work. I would get the G5 UHF D with the DMR from East Coast Pagers. I would program the 4 zones in each knob position, there are 8 knob positions in the pager. For each knob position or zone you can program 64 TG.Let me know when you get it .

Well.....my hand involuntarily navigated to East Coast Pagers and ordered the G5 with DMR.......should be here in 3 days.....

 

[bobruzzo]

One more question....my radio computer runs WIN11.....I read elsewhere in forum about a needed Unication G5 DRIVER. I went to their website and found downloads for manual and programming software but nothing about a driver.

 

[Nascar18]

One more question....my radio computer runs WIN11.....I read elsewhere in forum about a needed Unication G5 DRIVER. I went to their website and found downloads for manual and programming software but nothing about a driver.

The driver is built into the PPS 4.0 software.

 

[Hit_Factor]

I am thinking about buying a Unication, from what I have read I am sold. Do they make a version that will run more than 1 site? I understand these radios will only scan 1 site at a time, but can you program say maybe 2 or 3 sites where you can pick any of those to scan? I live on the border of 2 site areas and would like to be able to listen mainly to the Providence RI site, and I am only a few miles south of there. But I live in the NORTH site area and would still want to hear calls from that area as well.

Perfect use case for TWO G4s

 

[Hit_Factor]

One more question....my radio computer runs WIN11.....I read elsewhere in forum about a needed Unication G5 DRIVER. I went to their website and found downloads for manual and programming software but nothing about a driver.

I just fired up a brand new Win11 computer and PPS runs fine on it. Did not need the optional driver.

 

[K9KLC]

OK thats easy enough! I only would probably program just 4 zones. So now is this thing very complicated to program? I have an SDS200 and BCD996P2 and totally fluent programming them. Does the Unication come with software or can you download it? I dont need to use any tones or recording and want to just monitor my states P25 system. Keep it simple. Since you can't program these radios from the RR database I assume you would have to set up a zone, then input each individual talkgroup you want? I am probably going to order the G4 next month and in the mean time see if there are any videos on Youtube showing how the software works.

It's important to understand what you want programmed and how to do it. I have Zones yes, but I have 3 different counties programmed in Zone 1, (the one I use at home) and I have those both, with talk groups I definitely want then that same county in a "trunking monitor position" where it gets every talk group in the county. The ones I do not have programmed in, do not show the name, simply the TG number which I'll cross reference later and decide if I want to add it in lieu of another one or in addition if I have slots left or what.
Obviously changing a channel knob is easy, changing zones takes a couple of steps which isn't hard or complicated, just more work for something I can accomplish by simply turning the knob from say position 1 to position 3. (in mine that switches counties to the next county east). It takes time, experimenting and such to see what TG may come out where in a situation like this.
I don't consider it really harder or easier than any other device I've programmed, just different. The problems I've run into is trying to make it do things it wasn't necessarily made to do, but will do. Ifor instance I was told it would not scan VHF and 700/800 on the moswin system and yes, it will if set up properly using full spectrum scan.

Frankly I'm still battling DMR a little bit, but I stopped trying to figure it out due to having other DMR devices and the unications were mainly brought for p-25 TRS to begin with. I started my journey about 7 months ago into Unications and am still tweaking or changing this or that as things pop up. Be patient, and ask questions. I've gotten a lot of help here and it's all been worth the journey.