Well, I got my G4 today, and I'm pretty much blown away. First off, simulcast distortion is 100% gone, all systems. Gone as in zero issues.
Deep inside of a metal frame office building, I can receive Simulcasts that don't have a tower within 10 miles, with the antenna off the pager, at about 2-3 bars. Inside this same building no scanner has a prayer of receiving those systems at all, regardless of what duck antenna you put on them, you can't even lock on at all with any of the digital scanners I've tried, and I've tried them all.
From what I've seen, the G4 will pull in systems at five bars at 4-5 times the distance from a tower that a scanner will (with antennas attached on both of course). The quality of the receiver, and the decoding, are truly amazing, and with the full size moto 700/800 duck antenna I bought attached, the range is even better than when using the stubby antenna. I would be surprised if a Motorola public safety two-way radio could receive much better than this little pager does in terms of pulling in distant signals and accurately processing them.
Obviously using a pager to scan has it quirk and irritations, but I'm already finding workarounds for most of them.
The one thing I have yet to figure out on day one, is how to silence that "unread messages" alert that sounds when that alert occurs (if it can be silenced). I also can't seem to find what the "yellow person" symbol at the top of the screen means, though it seems harmless. Other than that I think everything else is pretty well dialed in and figured out.
For anyone thinking of buying one for your local simulcast system(s), don't hesitate, you won't regret it.
Deep inside of a metal frame office building, I can receive Simulcasts that don't have a tower within 10 miles, with the antenna off the pager, at about 2-3 bars. Inside this same building no scanner has a prayer of receiving those systems at all, regardless of what duck antenna you put on them, you can't even lock on at all with any of the digital scanners I've tried, and I've tried them all.
From what I've seen, the G4 will pull in systems at five bars at 4-5 times the distance from a tower that a scanner will (with antennas attached on both of course). The quality of the receiver, and the decoding, are truly amazing, and with the full size moto 700/800 duck antenna I bought attached, the range is even better than when using the stubby antenna. I would be surprised if a Motorola public safety two-way radio could receive much better than this little pager does in terms of pulling in distant signals and accurately processing them.
Obviously using a pager to scan has it quirk and irritations, but I'm already finding workarounds for most of them.
The one thing I have yet to figure out on day one, is how to silence that "unread messages" alert that sounds when that alert occurs (if it can be silenced). I also can't seem to find what the "yellow person" symbol at the top of the screen means, though it seems harmless. Other than that I think everything else is pretty well dialed in and figured out.
For anyone thinking of buying one for your local simulcast system(s), don't hesitate, you won't regret it.
