Questions before I buy

[Tim-B]

I have been reading about the G5 and I may buy one to monitor certain talkgroups in a statewide 700 MHz P25 system while on the road but I have a few questions if someone wouldn't mind answering them.

1- I read that you can program 64 talkgroups per channel knob position. Is this correct?

2- If number 1 is correct then can I program 8 X 64 talkgroups all on the same system for example each state police troop area into a different "channel" and have 64 talkgroups in each channel?

3- How many control channels can be entered for a single system? If there are 138 tower sites statewide and each has a primary and two alternate control channels can put them all in for the same system? Well, there is some frequency resuse but not much. So I would still need to put in a couple of hundred CC frequencies. Or if the number is less will it let me progam the same system eight times but just give it a new name and different set of control channels for each iteration even if the sysid will be the same all eight times?

4- When entering multiple sites does the pager find one good control channel and stay there or does it constantly rotate through all sites looking for a good control channel for each?

 

[JD21960]

Questions before I buy? Unication G4/G5

1. Yes. But Trust me. You will end up NOT having the full 64 because it will drive you nuts unless they come out with a pause button or user defined delay. Only 64 knobs I have are filled with fire and fireground that don't have lots of traffic *until Phase2 firmware comes in. You'll pare things down across the 8 knobs.

2. Yes. It's very handy for a statewide system. I have State Police set up by Districts per knob settings and first knob with all things I'm interested in.

3. Unication site says 256 Control channels for one system is the limit.
But it's been found that if you LOAD this thing up like a scanner with 1000's of things? it will become sluggish to respond, it's a pager radio, not a traditional scanner. You'll see if you try it. WHAT I do is make a different code plug profile for each county I will go to. Instead of having all that stuff onboard? it's sitting on my PC until I decide to go there, I simply upload it to the scanner. I took a trip recently that way through 6 different County/SITES for the same SYSTEM. Perfect reception there and back. If you notice the unit is still holding onto a different SITE? just turn the knob and let it rescan for the new tower in the county you just entered

4. It seems to stay on the closest one. I have a WS1080 and CAN monitor 3 SITES where they all converge near a relative's house. The reception is garbled at times but I can force it to use a 3 different SITES. WITH the G4/G5 it seems to hang on to the most local ONE. There is no jumping off to the other site and back and forth even though I have 3 different Control channels entered for 3 diff sites. Not really a problem though. Reception is perfect. :0)

I purchased mine to see what this radio CAN become. it was a lot of money *as I got the charger/AMP too. All of it was worth it. Unication has a winning idea here and needs to make it more scanner like. If I were a fireman/EMT? I'd want more control than there is now. There are a few CONS.. like some digital burps on the system and if a guy in the field has a lousy radio? it gets irritating a bit. But what radio doesn't have an annoying birdie or belch of noise? it's few and far between. Bluetooth pair up was easy but finding a good earphone with a non-obtrusive acquisition tone is tough. Using the UHF/VHF takes some reading and experimenting. For VHF/UHF It's basically ONE knob in "NORMAL SCAN or PRIORITY SCAN" controls up to 16 other knob positions with frequencies in "MONITOR" mode. The G4/G5's scan KNOB positions, not frequencies according to the site. I use this thing on the road all the time. I tend to use the WS1080 at night using that headphone as I find the sound quality of the Whistler a little more easy on the ears over long listening sessions. Was it worth the money? So far yes. Thanks to RAY'S Pagers in PA!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swRj_2rJlqk

 

[Tim-B]

Thanks for the reply. I mainly want to use it on the highway where cell towers interfere with scanner reception. I plan to set each of the 8 channel knob positions for a different troop area and the 64 talkgroups for each knob position will mainly be state police and rarely used interop talkgroups for that area. If there is a wreck blocking the highway I want to know about it. I will use a scanner to scan all the local agencies as I pass through their respective areas. I do want the pager to find one good control channel and stay on it until I get too far from that site and it needs to find another one. That way it won't waste time trying to check the many sites that are out of range. Find one site and stick with it till it's time to move on. That's a good thing.

 

[JD21960]

The best thing? all this was with the stubby antenna only, sitting in the drink holder in the car. No outside the window antenna needed like I do with the WS1080/RS800mz duo. I HAVE set it up using the AMP/Charger antenna aimed at the 2 different counties next to me. Both towers are like 20-30 miles away and I got one perfectly using an 800mhz Yagi and 3-4 bars to the one south of me. I can hear them now if I want. Nothing with the WS1080 in the 700/800mhz range.

 

[Tim-B]

Bahahahaha, awesome!

 

[Tim-B]

Just one more question for my programming planning.

How many characters can you have in a talkgroup text tag?

 

[JD21960]

Questions G4/G5 pager

I think it's 14. It's not quite as many as the WS1080 at 16 I remember.