• To anyone looking to acquire commercial radio programming software:

    Please do not make requests for copies of radio programming software which is sold (or was sold) by the manufacturer for any monetary value. All requests will be deleted and a forum infraction issued. Making a request such as this is attempting to engage in software piracy and this forum cannot be involved or associated with this activity. The same goes for any private transaction via Private Message. Even if you attempt to engage in this activity in PM's we will still enforce the forum rules. Your PM's are not private and the administration has the right to read them if there's a hint to criminal activity.

    If you are having trouble legally obtaining software please state so. We do not want any hurt feelings when your vague post is mistaken for a free request. It is YOUR responsibility to properly word your request.

    To obtain Motorola software see the Sticky in the Motorola forum.

    The various other vendors often permit their dealers to sell the software online (i.e., Kenwood). Please use Google or some other search engine to find a dealer that sells the software. Typically each series or individual radio requires its own software package. Often the Kenwood software is less than $100 so don't be a cheapskate; just purchase it.

    For M/A Com/Harris/GE, etc: there are two software packages that program all current and past radios. One package is for conventional programming and the other for trunked programming. The trunked package is in upwards of $2,500. The conventional package is more reasonable though is still several hundred dollars. The benefit is you do not need multiple versions for each radio (unlike Motorola).

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Motorola Pager/Radio

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ltginrage

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Hello,
How hard would it be to obtain the programming software for a Motorola pager or radio? Would it be easier to go with a unication pager?
 

Floridarailfanning

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How hard would it be to obtain the programming software for a Motorola pager or radio?
It's easy so long as your budget allows. . . MSI charges and arm and a leg for CPS, though it's relatively cheap compared to the cost of the radios.
Would it be easier to go with a unication pager?
This will depend entirely on what your goal is. Are you trying to monitor a P25 trunking system? Do you need the ability to transmit?
 

ltginrage

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The programming software for the Minitor VI Pager is free.
Where?
This will depend entirely on what your goal is. Are you trying to monitor a P25 trunking system? Do you need the ability to transmit?
I'm looking to use a "professional" radio/pager for better reception. I'd prefer a pager because I plan on joining local (volunteer) fire department eventually. I would hope the FD provides the radio.
 

Floridarailfanning

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I'm looking to use a "professional" radio/pager for better reception. I'd prefer a pager because I plan on joining local (volunteer) fire department eventually. I would hope the FD provides the radio.
You would probably be best off using a Unication G4 or G5 for simplicity and cost sake, though having used a G4 for the last 3 years I have some strong opinions about the G series pagers and Unication overall.

If you do decide to go with a Unication pager don't be fooled by their marketing material or the claims in their P25 white paper on the website. These are NOT "Mission Critical" devices and suffer from a fair number of bugs. And in my experience, Unication has offered minimal support.
 

ltginrage

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You would probably be best off using a Unication G4 or G5 for simplicity and cost sake, though having used a G4 for the last 3 years I have some strong opinions about the G series pagers and Unication overall.

If you do decide to go with a Unication pager don't be fooled by their marketing material or the claims in their P25 white paper on the website. These are NOT "Mission Critical" devices and suffer from a fair number of bugs. And in my experience, Unication has offered minimal support.
I was thinking of unication and might go with them because I can use that to montior alot more than 10 departments
Join the dept, they'd probably give you a pager before a radio.
Not sure if they use pagers because the vhf system barely makes it to the district Im in. I know they use iAmResponding.
 

K4EET

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For the PPS (Pager Programming Software), look towards the bottom of the page under "Software Downloads"

Motorola Minitor V Pager


Motorola Minitor VI Pager

 

RBMTS

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If they use VHF you might have better luck using a Motorola Pager since all of the Unication Pagers are all intended mainly for trunking P25.

While the Unication pagers work well with P25 Phase II systems, the G2-G5 work EXTREMELY well for analog conventional paging. Sorry but my G5 is much more selective and receives VHF much better than my M3's, M4's, and M5's. Plus the Unication's allow for PL/DPL to be added to a frequency once the pager alerts and is open. Thus I can eliminate much of the adjacent intermod crap. The M3's - M5's can't do that (not sure about the M6).
 

Floridarailfanning

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Sorry but my G5 is much more selective and receives VHF much better than my M3's, M4's, and M5's. Plus the Unication's allow for PL/DPL to be added to a frequency once the pager alerts and is open.
That's good to know. I've never set up analog paging on the G4 since it's 700/800. The only reason I suggested an /\/\ pager was to save the OP some money since most of the price of the G series is for the P25 features.
 

K2NEC

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Hello,
How hard would it be to obtain the programming software for a Motorola pager or radio? Would it be easier to go with a unication pager?
Earlier this year I bought a pager for my FAS, not because they didn't give me one, but because I wanted to learn how to program them. I wanted to have my own preferences in it and also not have to worry about damaging a department pager or whatnot. Since we still use low band for paging, my only option was the Minitor 5 (I didn't want a unication, too much $$$). I got the pager and then programming it was a whole different can of worms. You can "make" a programming base from the many tutorials on this website or you can buy a legit OEM Motorola programming base like I did. After getting the base, the programming cable seemed easy enough since they sell them on ebay for like $35. WRONG. That cable doesn't work. IDK where the guy got the pinout but it's WAYYY off. I ended up getting a generic serial cable and had a friend of mine help me with getting the pinout right.

All this being said, it definitely depends on your application and how many channels you want to listen to. Minitor 5 you are stuck with a max of 2 channels. If that's ok with you? Lucky for you they go for pretty cheap on ebay. Software is also free from Motorola. (Take advantage of this, Motorola doesn't give out programming software often ;) )

If you have any more questions or need more detailed instructions, feel free to ask.

EDIT: Overall for everything, including pager and programming stuff, I only paid about $135
 

ltginrage

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I would only use it for VHF channels. I think a unication would be the way to go becasue I would like to have 5 or 6 frequencies with a few sets of tones on each.
 

Tech21

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You would probably be best off using a Unication G4 or G5 for simplicity and cost sake, though having used a G4 for the last 3 years I have some strong opinions about the G series pagers and Unication overall.

If you do decide to go with a Unication pager don't be fooled by their marketing material or the claims in their P25 white paper on the website. These are NOT "Mission Critical" devices and suffer from a fair number of bugs. And in my experience, Unication has offered minimal support.

They are also a royal pain to set up if you don't know what you're doing.
 

ltginrage

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Ok, so what about a Motorola HT1250. Hard to obtain software and cable? A better option for monitoring?
 

Ant9270

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Ok, so what about a Motorola HT1250. Hard to obtain software and cable? A better option for monitoring?

The software nor the cable is hard to obtain. The HT1250 has been EOL for quite some time, And they no longer sell the CPS. You will have to find it through another source, which shouldn't be too difficult. However, these are far more complex to set up than a Minitor pager. You're talking receiver versus transceiver with many more options. That being said, the HT1250 is a phenomenal radio despite its EOL label.
 

mmckenna

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I'm looking to use a "professional" radio/pager for better reception. I'd prefer a pager because I plan on joining local (volunteer) fire department eventually. I would hope the FD provides the radio.

Said agency will likely supply you with what you need to do the job. That may be a pager, may be a portable radio.

Usually joining a volunteer agency and already owning radios/pagers that work on their systems gets you a label you may not want as a new guy. You won't be permitted to transmit, so buying a two way radio is kind of pointless. If you join the agency, they can assign you a radio. Under FCC rules, the only person who can add radios to a radio system is the licensee. You as a volunteer are not a license holder.

As krokus said, a better option is to get a good scanner and put up an external antenna. Yeah, professional radios tend to have better receivers, but it locks you into one band. Add in the cost of software/cables, learning how to do all the programming, not to mention the cost of the radio, a new battery (if you buy used, you -will- need a new battery) charger, antenna (common 'expendable' item) etc, and it gets expensive. And you still may have reception issues if you don't have a good outside antenna.

A scanner, on the other hand, will give you a lot more options. You can listen in on adjacent agencies, law enforcement, EMS, and all the others. The external antenna will greatly improve your coverage. If you are really interested in joining the agency, it's a good idea to learn as much as you can. You can garner a lot of information by listening not only to the agency itself, but all the other surrounding agencies.
 

a417

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Ok, so what about a Motorola HT1250. Hard to obtain software and cable? A better option for monitoring?
Not worth the trouble. You're not going to want to pay the $$ for the CPS if it's still available, so you'll probably pirate it...you'll get a knockoff cable from ebay that might work, you're going to be getting probably a 20 year old radio which may or may not have the firmware you need it in.

join the dept and use their equipment , or get a scanner.
 
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