Interested in a Unication G5

[K9KLC]

Sure hope the officer was okay. Really pisses me off everytime that happens. All my family have been very lucky. My dad, two uncles and 5 cousins.

They've not said much other than they're hoping for a full recovery.

 

[CollinsURG]

So, a post about the SDS150 has convinced me without doubt that I should get a G5 which I will do in the next couple days.

SDS150: - Uniden's Official SDS150 Tech Discussion

Just send a dot . to its micro usb port using ProScan or other terminal program like PuTTY and see if it answers back with R840 that are the receiver chip used in the other SDS scanners. /Ubbe Does the SDS150 have 2 USB ports? If not, there may not be a way to issue diagnostic commands as you...

forums.radioreference.com

I will order the G5 with 450-512 Mhz. Comparing reports here on the G series pagers with posts about the SDS150 performance helped me make an informed decision. Thanks for all the information. I am excited to get a receiver that can provide excellent coverage and audio with local LSM systems.

I will use a BCD325P2 or HP2 for anything the G5 does not cover. In fact it should be a good combo. The BCD325P2 and HP2 can cover analog and the 240 site NC Viper system for me. The G5 can cover my local county, adjacent counties and the 3 Viper LSM sites if I am ever near one. Of course one at a time which is just fine.

 

[K9KLC]

So, a post about the SDS150 has convinced me without doubt that I should get a G5 which I will do in the next couple days.

SDS150: - Uniden's Official SDS150 Tech Discussion

Just send a dot . to its micro usb port using ProScan or other terminal program like PuTTY and see if it answers back with R840 that are the receiver chip used in the other SDS scanners. /Ubbe Does the SDS150 have 2 USB ports? If not, there may not be a way to issue diagnostic commands as you...

forums.radioreference.com

I will order the G5 with 450-512 Mhz. Comparing reports here on the G series pagers with posts about the SDS150 performance helped me make an informed decision. Thanks for all the information. I am excited to get a receiver that can provide excellent coverage and audio with local LSM systems.

I will use a BCD325P2 or HP2 for anything the G5 does not cover. In fact it should be a good combo. The BCD325P2 and HP2 can cover analog and the 240 site NC Viper system for me. The G5 can cover my local county, adjacent counties and the 3 Viper LSM sites if I am ever near one. Of course one at a time which is just fine.

While I don't know that the exact scenario that post was about would pertain to me, it does cause me to pause and wonder if it's worth the outlay. We have little UHF public service in my area and at home I cover that with either my BCD 536 or one of the multiple other ham radios I have that receive there when I'm in the mood to monitor that. My local town is still dispatched on VHF analog and again that's covered by the 536. In a pinch I do have a G5 (well two honestly) that have VHF in them and if out and about I can switch to the fire analog stuff there, I"m not so much about listening to the call outs to the nursing home to assist fall pick ups and stuff which is a lot of it.

I'm still going to watch and read about other posters and their luck with the SDS 150, and perhaps later do some selling to acquire one but as of now, I'm going to simply continue to use what I have.

My Unications were purchased used at fair prices and honesty cover probably 98 % or more of what I'm interested in listening to. I've been extremely happy with them for my case use, on the simulcast system I monitor day in and out.

 

[CollinsURG]

While I don't know that the exact scenario that post was about would pertain to me, it does cause me to pause and wonder if it's worth the outlay.

Yep. $950 for a radio that has intermod issues that a BCD996T and BCD536HP do not is not appealing to me. Also the reports of audio quality concern me.

Reading all the posts, what I gather is that the SDS150 still has a TV chip as the RF front-end. And what they did to fix a lot of interference issues was add a 1 MHz filter maybe between it and the next IF mixer. So, instead of a 10 MHz wide IF with the SDS100 which allows 1600 6.25 Khz channels to pass to the next IF mixer, the SDS150 with a 1 MHz wide IF, only allows 160 6.25 KHz channels to pass. That will certainly improve things, but still invites intermod. And those TV chips are prone to desense. I would not be surprised if they added IF passband shift filters to the SDS150 as they did for the SDS100.

It sure would have been nice if Unication had designed a scanner to compete with Uniden. It would be worth more than the SDS150 to me. I am wondering if they thought they could not charge enough to get average consumers to invest. Right now if you want a true LSM scanner, Uniden is the sole option.

I can make the G5 and BCD325P2 work for me. Have been using the BCD325P2 with the large SDS100 or oddley shaped HP2 already. The BCD325P2 is any excellent performer RF wise. Never defenses, no intermod issues. The only issue I have with the BCD325P2 is no backlit keypad and short battery life. I started using EBL 2800 mAh AA cells and get 6 plus hours, so not as bad now.

 

[Nascar18]

The only down side to the G5 is you can't program on the fly. Make knob position #8 your travel channels!

 

[CollinsURG]

The only down side to the G5 is you can't program on the fly. Make knob position #8 your travel channels!

Thanks. All suggestions are much appreciated.

I envisioned my local county system on one position which has one simulcast system on 3 repeaters and includes all public safety in the county. I plan to program the TGs important to me and in the next knob position up, use the wildard.

Then adjacent counties on their own knob position, plus a wildcard position.

NC Viper has 240+ sites, only 3 are LSM. I will use the BCD325P2 portable and HP2 mobile for that as I already do, but use the G5 for just those 3 LSM sites. So that will be 3 positions plus maybe wildcard positions.

64 TGs should be plenty for my interests. It's actually a lot. You can only monitor so much. I usually monitor dispatch channels and manually switch to TAC channels.

I chose 450-512 as 2nd band for a few reasons. 400 will work better with the internal antenna than 150. There are no 150 or 400 LSM near me. There is DMR on 400. I do travel to areas that have 150 and 400 trunked systems. I did not find any 150 LSM, only 400 LSM. The BCD325P2 and HP2 can handle analog, P25 single channel and all non LSM P25 for me.

 

[blackbelter]

As you aware, and like most if not all professional grade radios Unication are not designed to program on the fly. G5 is a pro pager that best combat LSM and captures 700/800 P25 signals. It just works.
My main reason to invest in my G5 was to recoup on a device that would designed to deliver the best key ups on our local P25/P2 with solid forum factor , exceptional battery life and clear audio. I don’t monitor analog nor VHF/UHF with it. Right tool for the right mission. If I plan on traveling, I invest the time in pre programming and assigning knob positions. I chose not to play where’s Waldo or look for unknown TG s with my G5.

 

[Nascar18]

You have to remember it's a pager working as a scanner. The wildcard usually gets you more traffic you don't want to listen to. Plus all you will get is a TG number. You don't control the G5 like a scanner. It's the best for simulcast.

 

[CollinsURG]

You have to remember it's a pager working as a scanner. The wildcard usually gets you more traffic you don't want to listen to. Plus all you will get is a TG number. You don't control the G5 like a scanner. It's the best for simulcast.

Yeah, I do understand all that. The wildcard will only be for times when something remote may not be programmed. In my county the traffic is not continuously busy on all TGs, but in Mecklenburg County it would probably be unusable that way. Other adjacent counties will be similar to mine.

 

[CollinsURG]

As you aware, and like most if not all professional grade radios Unication are not designed to program on the fly. G5 is a pro pager that best combat LSM and captures 700/800 P25 signals. It just works.
My main reason to invest in my G5 was to recoup on a device that would designed to deliver the best key ups on our local P25/P2 with solid forum factor , exceptional battery life and clear audio. I don’t monitor analog nor VHF/UHF with it. Right tool for the right mission. If I plan on traveling, I invest the time in pre programming and assigning knob positions. I chose not to play where’s Waldo or look for unknown TG s with my G5.

My main reason also is good performance on P25 LSM with audio far better than the SDS100. In reality, the BCD325P2 can often receive LSM well enough to discover anything else or supplement those not often needed TGs that I would not want to waste space programming in the G5.

Maybe I wont worry about the wildcard on any other systems but only for my local county, since the BCD325P2 is usable. The HP2 does fairly well most of the time with LSM. It is not often that either the BCD325P2 or HP2 do not receive something the SDS100 does, or is so garbled you can't make out what is said. But full time monitoring LSM can get very tiresome with either one of them. They will mainly be for anything not LSM.

 

[K9KLC]

If I plan on traveling, I invest the time in pre programming and assigning knob positions.

Agreed but it did come in handy for a spur of the moment side trip on a vacation we took last fall with a Wild card group and scan position.

The wildcard usually gets you more traffic you don't want to listen to. Plus all you will get is a TG number.

Ya if I have to use it unplanned at least you can lock out up to 64 TG's, not that I've ever locked out that many but still comes in handy on occasion. While I do occasionally miss the TG "name" while out and about, usually it doesn't take much to figure out if you're listening to animal control or something you really might want to listen to. As mentioned above I try and do appropriate planning prior to taking it out of the area.

My main reason to invest in my G5 was to recoup on a device that would designed to deliver the best key ups on our local P25/P2 with solid forum factor , exceptional battery life and clear audio

My sole reason in the beginning was to monitor our county's simulcast system, and the county next to me. I agree using the Unication for other things may seen like a waste however in some rare applications I do use mine to listen to the local FD on VHF and also a couple other VHF things I may have the desire to hear while I'm out and about. It spends 99% of its life though on P-25 trunking be it simulcast or single site depending on my location. It was honestly well after the fact I put the VHF stuff in there, I figured it's in there why not. I don't always have the plethora of radios with me like I do at home.

All in all for monitoring a P-25 trunking system, be it single site or especially simulcast, given the battery life and great audio, if there's something besides an actual subscriber radio that beats it, I haven't found it yet.

 

[CollinsURG]

Agreed but it did come in handy for a spur of the moment side trip on a vacation we took last fall with a Wild card group and scan position.

Ya if I have to use it unplanned at least you can lock out up to 64 TG's, not that I've ever locked out that many but still comes in handy on occasion. While I do occasionally miss the TG "name" while out and about, usually it doesn't take much to figure out if you're listening to animal control or something you really might want to listen to. As mentioned above I try and do appropriate planning prior to taking it out of the area.

My sole reason in the beginning was to monitor our county's simulcast system, and the county next to me. I agree using the Unication for other things may seen like a waste however in some rare applications I do use mine to listen to the local FD on VHF and also a couple other VHF things I may have the desire to hear while I'm out and about. It spends 99% of its life though on P-25 trunking be it simulcast or single site depending on my location. It was honestly well after the fact I put the VHF stuff in there, I figured it's in there why not. I don't always have the plethora of radios with me like I do at home.

All in all for monitoring a P-25 trunking system, be it single site or especially simulcast, given the battery life and great audio, if there's something besides an actual subscriber radio that beats it, I haven't found it yet.

Can you comment on what you think is the reception quality of analog VHF on the G5 given it only uses an internal antenna for VHF? Thanks.

 

[K9KLC]

Can you comment on what you think is the reception quality of analog VHF on the G5 given it only uses an internal antenna for VHF? Thanks.

I can only compare it to what I tested it to here. On the internal antenna, using the weather band frequencies as a test, it outperformed an SDS 100 with some kind of long ham antenna on it which the owner of the radio I had on it.

Regarding my BCD 536 with a telescoping antenna on it, the 536 was slightly better it seemed but you know, it was pretty close.

On a ham HT I checked it on, the Ham HT won
by a pretty fair margin but it was a dual band Ham HT so that wasn't surprising.

Coming thru MO listening to the Moswin System, on VHF, I guess it did OK but I needed it up on the visor to work very well, next trip we had it in the Amplified charger and I had a little Magnet mount on the car, and that worked much better it seems. All and all I works acceptably well I think for an internal antenna. It's not a 3 DB gain antenna out there no, but for what it is, works ok or to me it does.

 

[blackbelter]

I have never felt the need to install an outdoor antennas for my cars nor town home. The supplied G5 antenna antenna does an amazing job of capturing our local P25/P2 system. If I need an extra dot then the amp charger supplied with the legacy RS 800 antenna does the heavy lifting. The TT are within +- 5 miles of my QTH. Although I seldom monitor more than 5 miles from home in my cars, the G5/stubby antenna clipped to the visor, I can monitor my entire county of 2000 SQ miles and county to the south.
In my case the supplied blue band antenna is trully a miracle antenna.

 

[CollinsURG]

I can only compare it to what I tested it to here. On the internal antenna, using the weather band frequencies as a test, it outperformed an SDS 100 with some kind of long ham antenna on it which the owner of the radio I had on it.

Regarding my BCD 536 with a telescoping antenna on it, the 536 was slightly better it seemed but you know, it was pretty close.

On a ham HT I checked it on, the Ham HT won
by a pretty fair margin but it was a dual band Ham HT so that wasn't surprising.

Coming thru MO listening to the Moswin System, on VHF, I guess it did OK but I needed it up on the visor to work very well, next trip we had it in the Amplified charger and I had a little Magnet mount on the car, and that worked much better it seems. All and all I works acceptably well I think for an internal antenna. It's not a 3 DB gain antenna out there no, but for what it is, works ok or to me it does.

Well that is encouraging. Thanks for the report. I am still leaning to UHF. I listen to national parks, mainly the Blue Ridge Parkway on single channel P25. But that is not very often, and I have the BCD325P2 that does that very well.

If I am pleased with the G5 with UHF 450-512 as I expect I will be, I am considering a G2 VHF later.

I plan to order tomorrow. Waiting for AMEX to roll over to next month when the second and third PayPal with 4 will be due.

 

[blackbelter]

All in all for monitoring a P-25 trunking system, be it single site or especially simulcast, given the battery life and great audio, if there's something besides an actual subscriber radio that beats it, I haven't found it yet.


This also has been my findings.

 

[CollinsURG]

I have never felt the need to install an outdoor antennas for my cars nor town home. The supplied G5 antenna antenna does an amazing job of capturing our local P25/P2 system. If I need an extra dot then the amp charger does the heavy lifting. The TT are within +- 5 miles of my QTH. Although I seldom monitor more than 5 miles from home in my cars, the G5/stubby antenna clipped to the visor, I can monitor my entire county of 2000 SQ miles and county to the south.

I am really anxious to experience much better reception and audio than the SDS100.

One other concern I had for the SDS150 was the audio reports are no better than the SDS100 and some say a bit worse. Then add in the intermod issue and I am resolved that I already have that with the SDS100. Why spend $950 to get internal GPS and some improvement with analog.

 

[CollinsURG]

All in all for monitoring a P-25 trunking system, be it single site or especially simulcast, given the battery life and great audio, if there's something besides an actual subscriber radio that beats it, I haven't found it yet.


This also has been my findings.

That's exactly what I want. Thanks.

 

[K9KLC]

am pleased with the G5 with UHF 450-512 as I expect I will be, I am considering a G2 VHF later

The G2 in VHF will obviously use the external antenna for its band. I will only say the scanning speed of the Unication is slow to me it seems. While I would consider one for monitoring the MOSWIN system on p-25 trunking I'm not sure to me it would be other wise worth it for conventional scanning. You're limited to 16 conventional frequencies per knob position which is fine if that's all you need but honestly as a scanner for conventional it fails compared to an "actual scanner".

 

[K9KLC]

In my case the supplied blue band antenna is trully a miracle antenna.

The 700/800 reception was and has been awesome. I only used the magnet mount on the car for the VHF MOSWIN trunking system over in MO. At home they sit in the charger with either the old RadioShack 800 antenna or the Remtronix that to me is a duplicate that antenna. My G4 charger has the 800 Remtronix with the right angle plug on it and while it works fine, I think the other two are a little better.