One radio/one "frequency" monitoring?

Status
Not open for further replies.

hanlonmi06

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Jul 16, 2009
Messages
211
Location
Pittsfield Twp, Michigan
My entire "scanner" listening experience is comprised of "consumer" grade scanners but I see a ton of postings on here where pro grade gear is used for this same/similar task.

Is there a big M radio or Harris or (I haven't a clue, thus why I'm posting) radio that could be set up for a single tower on the MPSCS and monitor a handful of TGID's?

To be more specific, If I wanted to listen in on the Washtenaw Co simulcast freq's and just monitor Metro E/W and a few others, does a feasable pro grade radio option exist?
 

tvengr

Well Known Member
Joined
Feb 10, 2019
Messages
10,168
Location
Baltimore County, MD
The Unication G4 pager is a commercial grade radio (Receive only). It is used by many fire departments for alerting. It will scan up to 64 talkgroups in each knob position. It is absolutely excellent receiving simulcast systems. For a single system and site at a time, you will not find anything better. You can program other systems and sites in other knob positions. There are 8 knob positions per zone and 32 zones available. The G4 is for 700/800 MHz only and is perfect for the MPSCS system. It has great audio, is compact and ruggedly built, and has long battery life.
 
Last edited:

MStep

Member
Joined
May 2, 2005
Messages
2,187
Location
New York City
My entire "scanner" listening experience is comprised of "consumer" grade scanners but I see a ton of postings on here where pro grade gear is used for this same/similar task.

Is there a big M radio or Harris or (I haven't a clue, thus why I'm posting) radio that could be set up for a single tower on the MPSCS and monitor a handful of TGID's?

To be more specific, If I wanted to listen in on the Washtenaw Co simulcast freq's and just monitor Metro E/W and a few others, does a feasable pro grade radio option exist?
Perhaps the best place to start would be by asking all the folks that you have seen posting here who have already gone through that process. I've never actually seen postings along those lines en masse. I've been monitoring here in the NYC area, and as both a hobbyist and professional communicator, except for persons with affiliations to agency(ies) in question, I've never really seen a hobbyist go in that direction.

Usually, folks are looking for the biggest bang for the buck, which gives them the most versatility. That's usually a scanner. Nevertheless, I'm sure that anything can be attained if the price is right. Compared to even the higher-end consumer scanners, I imagine the cost would be prohibitive for most folks. Assuming that you could get the equipment compatible with the system in question, you would have to find someone with the knowledge, expertise, and the right equipment to program it with the specific tower and talk-groups that you are interested in. And then helping you maintain it in the event the system configurations were changed.

I apologize for giving you a somewhat round-about answer, and I imagine that the option could exist if you could overcome the obstacles of price, availability and programming ability. I too am interested in hearing from those admittedly more knowledgeable than myself. I certainly know of folks who have opted in that direction for single-frequency, non-trunked listening. I too am anxious to here what advice others here have to offer, especially those who might be more familiar with the system in question.

Best of luck in your endeavors and place keep us posted.

EDIT- And there ya go--- even as I post, tvengr came up with a possible solution, albeit not Motorola or Harris. So there are some possible options.
 

CanesFan95

Analog already is interoperable.
Joined
Feb 14, 2008
Messages
3,197
Location
FL
Mine lets me have up to 64 zones:

1687482383477.png

And I think the battery life really depends a lot on your settings. I have mine on max volume in the truck and screen always on, brightness 80 out of 100 and get probably 8-10 hours of use on a busy fire TG. The battery itself is a small unit about the size of a digital camera battery. But if you use it for what it was meant for, you're only getting an occasional page and the battery will last a lot longer. For hobby use, you'll prolly chew through the battery much faster.
 

tvengr

Well Known Member
Joined
Feb 10, 2019
Messages
10,168
Location
Baltimore County, MD
Mine lets me have up to 64 zones:
You are certainly correct! Thank you. Originally, it allowed up to 128 zones. Then it dropped to 32. Presently it is 64. I usually have my volume on 60 in my vehicle and it is plenty loud for me. Incidentally, I have 2 G5's. One is VHF/700/800 and the other is UHF-D/700/800. You only need a G4 with 700/800 for the MPSCS system. That will save you a little.
 

hanlonmi06

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Jul 16, 2009
Messages
211
Location
Pittsfield Twp, Michigan
I meant for this to land in the Michigan Forum since my question was specific to the MPSCS, but perhaps this forum is equally OK?

Anyhow, I've seen the postings about Unication products and I guess I always pictured them as glorified Minitor II's or III's so perhaps they deserve another look from this perspective. So for argument sake, and money is no object, purchasing a pro grade P25 product, slapping some control channels in and setting up TGID's just isn't even a thing. The "scanner land" and commercial public safety just don't even see each other across the expanse of the universe it sounds like. Mostly my thought process revolved around the concept that the scanner products have barn doors for front ends and pro grade system being, well, mission critical prograde gear, have a totally different architecture, so if one wanted to do a P25, one tower/5 tgid's configuration, its actually much more than that I gather, from the commercial side of things.
 

tvengr

Well Known Member
Joined
Feb 10, 2019
Messages
10,168
Location
Baltimore County, MD
Yes, it's a thing. What I'm not informed on is (1) whether you would need a system key to connect this radio to the system, and (2) how readily available the software is to program one of these.
To be more specific, If I wanted to listen in on the Washtenaw Co simulcast freq's and just monitor Metro E/W and a few others, does a feasable pro grade radio option exist?
The Unication programming software (PPS) is a free download. If this is what you want to monitor, there are no keys involved.

Washtenaw County (81) Metro Dispatch: Law Enforcement

DEC HEX Mode Alpha TagDescriptionTag
12302300eD81METRO EASTEast [County] Zone DispatchLaw Dispatch
12303300fD81METRO WESTWest [County] Zone DispatchLaw Dispatch
 

jtwalker

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Dec 3, 2012
Messages
1,999
Location
Gettysburg, PA & Fenwick Island, DE
The Unication programming software (PPS) is a free download. If this is what you want to monitor, there are no keys involved.

Washtenaw County (81) Metro Dispatch: Law Enforcement​

DECHEXModeAlpha TagDescriptionTag
12302300eD81METRO EASTEast [County] Zone DispatchLaw Dispatch
12303300fD81METRO WESTWest [County] Zone DispatchLaw Dispatch
I meant software for a Motorola (or other professional) radio, which seemed to be where the OP was looking. And I meant system key (ASK), not encryption key.
 
Last edited:

natedawg1604

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Jun 29, 2013
Messages
2,732
Location
Colorado
Harris XG or XL radios setup for NAS can scan 127 talkgroups, that's the only commercial radio that supports more TG's than Unication. The Unication is definitely simpler and easier to setup, however.
 
Last edited:

tvengr

Well Known Member
Joined
Feb 10, 2019
Messages
10,168
Location
Baltimore County, MD
I meant software for a Motorola (or other professional) radio, which seemed to be where the OP was looking. And I meant system key, not encryption key.
That's the good thing about the Unication pagers. You get commercial grade decoding without needing to worry about affiliating with a radio system. No system keys are required. The software itself for commercial 2-way radios can bankrupt you.
 

krokus

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Jun 9, 2006
Messages
6,118
Location
Southeastern Michigan
I also suggest the Unication G4. You can also buy the amplifier base, incase you want to export the audio. It works well on Washtenaw County's sites.

The Relm 800 MHz radios are supposed to support non-affiliated scanning, but I have not used those. There are threads about them.
 

hanlonmi06

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Jul 16, 2009
Messages
211
Location
Pittsfield Twp, Michigan
So, is this a reasonable statement: the architecture of pro grade gear simple does not possess the ability for a few mouse clicks to enter a CC and "i want to listen to the local dog catcher" TGID...

...ergo, your consumer grade offerings with uniden, whistler, ect. (Not implying Unication is in that category).

Im reminded of a scene in Heat where Neil is asking how the techno geek got all his info on the bank they were talking about robbing and the guys response was something like "its just beamed out in thin air, but i know how to grab it". To me, thats the best scene in that whole movie. So by extension, i sort of wondered if you could acquire a pro grade P25 platform and with some basic entries, get one to grab the 1's and 0's out of thin air and listen to the shenanagans of the dog catcher or trash collectors but it appears the architecture of those products just isn't set up in that manner.
 

CanesFan95

Analog already is interoperable.
Joined
Feb 14, 2008
Messages
3,197
Location
FL
If you do go the G4 / G5 route, I also recommend getting the amplified base charger. Despite it's small speaker size (only about 1 7/8") , the audio volume and quality are outstanding and make it sound just like a loud commercial radio. It also let's you hook up an external antenna which opens a world of monitoring opportunities.

However for some reason, the G5 UHF 400-470s continues to be out of stock for at least 2+ months now and the dealers and manufacturer are being tight-lipped as to why.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top