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Newbie to Unication

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afdscan

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I have a Unication G4 coming soon, so I started building a program to have it ready when my G4 gets here. I have a question, does anyone know if I can program two different P25 systems on the same profile?
 

Thunderknight

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Yes. The pager just has one profile in it.
You can have multiple systems within that profile.
You can have multiple systems within a zone.
You can only have ONE system per KNOB position.
So Zone 1, Knob 1 could be system A, Z1K2, System 2, Z1K3, System 1 with different talkgroups, etc.
Zone 2, Knob 1, System C.
There are 8 knob positions per zone.
 

ecarvalho

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Feb 23, 2005
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Thunder is right
I own a G4 and a G5 so I have to maintain 2 profiles in my PPS, one for each pager.
My G4 is dedicated to our local FEMS system and I created a zone with different talkgroups on each of the knob positions.
My G5 on the other hand has several systems and each zone has its knob set for one system.
Bottom line, one knob position can only hold one system.
 

afdscan

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I've entered my primary and alternate frequencies, however after programming my G4, I am seeing a screen message saying "OUT OF RANGE". Apparently I am missing something here. Any thoughts?
 

JD21960

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Out of range *knowing that you're in the SITE tower coverage* usually means you need to check the WACN, System ID number and SITE number.
 

JD21960

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Well that stinks. Maybe you ARE out of range of the SITE towers you're trying to get. These things have great range with a Yagi antenna too. I am able to get the counties north and south of me using one of those. Nothing with the WS1080.
 

afdscan

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Well that stinks. Maybe you ARE out of range of the SITE towers you're trying to get. These things have great range with a Yagi antenna too. I am able to get the counties north and south of me using one of those. Nothing with the WS1080.

It does stink. I'm about one mile from the system tower.
 

ed3750

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Verify that the control ch listed is correct. I received an out of range message on a system where RR had an incorrect CC listed. Also be sure you are entering the hexadecimal number (number in parentheses) for the rfss and site. If none of that works, I would try substituting the wildcard FFFF.
 

afdscan

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Verify that the control ch listed is correct. I received an out of range message on a system where RR had an incorrect CC listed. Also be sure you are entering the hexadecimal number (number in parentheses) for the rfss and site. If none of that works, I would try substituting the wildcard FFFF.

I found my problem. It was site data that I listed incorrectly. Thanks for the help.
 

JD21960

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That's good. You're going to like using these radios. I took a trip through 5 counties and 6 different SITES from the same statewide SYSTEM and never lost the signal once. And that was with the pager/radio sitting in the drink holder, no outside antenna needed. Only once did the radio try to hang on to the old Control channel of the county I was leaving. Simply turning the knob and then back let it scan and it found the new CChannel for the county I was entering. I look forward to all the firmware updates that they can dream up. ;0)
 
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troymail

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I found my problem. It was site data that I listed incorrectly. Thanks for the help.

Yup - with each new "toy", I find more and more information on the RRDB to be inaccuarte and/or out of date - particularly things that most people don't care about like GPS info (lat/lon/range), WACN, SYSIDs, RFSS and site values, etc. Lots of encrypted talkgroups that aren't marked as such, CC frequencies are in need of updates, etc. Until verified, I'm now seeing that the best thing to do for "virgin territory" where I've never monitored/listen before is to program all site frequencies (maybe even look at the license data for more) and create at least a "copy" of the system and zone where the WACN and other data is set to wildcards. This eliminates the needs for me to do "on the road" programming (mostly).
That's good. You're going to like using these radios. I took a trip through 5 counties and 6 different SITES from the same statewide SYSTEM and never lost the signal once. And that was with the pager/radio sitting in the drink holder, no outside antenna needed. Only once did the radio try to hang on to the old Control channel of the county I was leaving. Simply turning the knob and then back let it scan and it found the new CChannel for the county I was entering. I look forward to all the firmware updates that they can dream up. ;0)
I see this working pretty well also but it varies... on at least two different statewide systems, I've seen the radio "hold onto" a CC frequency for a site footprint that I left for extended periods. I've learned to both use the stock antenna while traveling and to do more custom programming where I control the site being monitored by programming each site into a different knob position. This is actually a carryover from my experiences with scanners where I wanted the control of which site or sites to monitor vs. letting the radio decide for me. The one downside of the Unications (which are not scanners so it's "ok") is that you can only monitor one site at any given time.

I too look forward to future firmware updates....let's see what they can make these things do!
 

ThePhotoGuy

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Yes. The pager just has one profile in it.
You can have multiple systems within that profile.
You can have multiple systems within a zone.
You can only have ONE system per KNOB position.
So Zone 1, Knob 1 could be system A, Z1K2, System 2, Z1K3, System 1 with different talkgroups, etc.
Zone 2, Knob 1, System C.
There are 8 knob positions per zone.

Very informative. I have been thinking about get a U4. Been hesitant to wait for when Phase II is available.

How many zones can you have? I understand that it is 8 knob positions per zone.

I see that it records audio but only 32 minutes worth? Is that 32 minutes worth per zone or total? When you want to move the files to computer, do you transfer the files easily to computer?
 

ecarvalho

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Feb 23, 2005
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I find useful prior to a trip, programming a zone called "Trip" and in each knob have a system for all major areas I will drive through. I clip the pager to the sun-visor right above my head, making both easy to switch knob positions and hear transmissions.
This also works well on daily commute
 

troymail

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Very informative. I have been thinking about get a U4. Been hesitant to wait for when Phase II is available.

How many zones can you have? I understand that it is 8 knob positions per zone.

I see that it records audio but only 32 minutes worth? Is that 32 minutes worth per zone or total? When you want to move the files to computer, do you transfer the files easily to computer?

Most of your questions can be answered on their website:
Unication USA

As far as zones - you can have any number of profiles on your PC and each profile can handle more zones than you'll ever need. You can only load 1 profile to the radio at any given time. I will note that I have "overwhelmed" the G4 with too much programming in a single profile. It can get ugly when you do this (you may want to throw it against the wall if/when this happens).

I haven't seen issues regarding "time" limit of recordings but I do routinely see the 1000 recording limit hit. When this happens, recordings that you haven't "locked" are overwritten (circular buffer). If you monitor alot of stuff, the overwrites can happen in a matter of hours since each transmission is it's own recording.

The G4 does a great job on Phase 1 simulcast systems in your area - Baltimore City, Baltimore County, CMARC, etc. Of course, it remains to be seen how well the Phase 2 capability (hopefully soon?) will work. Keep in mind that there will be an upgrade charge for the Phase 2 capability when that comes --
 

Jimco

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The G4 does a great job on Phase 1 simulcast systems in your area - Baltimore City, Baltimore County, CMARC, etc. Of course, it remains to be seen how well the Phase 2 capability (hopefully soon?) will work.

Given that these pagers are designed for first responders, I'm sure Phase II will work just as well as Phase I does today.

Jim
 
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