Yes, all use P25 Phase II, What site/stores would you recommend to purchase the Unication? Have to learn about BCD. Also, regarding the charging, I was thinking of the wall power adapters that you plugin, replacing the need of a battery.
Radio Reccomendations
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I don't have personal experience with them but I have heard that East Coast Pagers gives very good product support from people who have dealt with him:
www.eastcoastpagers.com
East Coast Pagers - Your Emergency Alerting Specialists
East Coast Pagers is a Unication Pager Dealer, a Swissphone Pager Dealer, and an Apollo Pager Dealer specializing in the Unication G1, Unication G2, Unication G3, Unication G4, and Unication G5 Pagers. We also specialize in Swissphone sQuad Pagers.
www.eastcoastpagers.com
I have made purchases from Ray's Pager Sales and East Coast Pagers. The owners of both are obviously dedicated to providing customers with top notch service, whether it be for purchasing unit, an accessory, or needing a warranty service ticket. You can't go wrong with either.
Regarding the question of the wall plug, you can leave unications and the Uniden SDS scanners plugged in or in the Unication case, in the optional drop in charger.
Regarding the SDS scanners, some of the comments about "great scanner" vs "poor design" need to be taken in the context of it being the first real "scanner" that could consistently receives P25 Phase 2 simulcast systems. Many of us were totally frustrated with the poor performance of the 436 on these systems when we had purchased it to specifically monitor those systems. There are plenty of old rant posts regarding the 436 in the New Jersey Forum threads on the NJICS. Finally the SDS became available giving us reliable reception of that system in all areas, so the radios shortcomings were overlooked. Now we also have the Unication as another option, one that is high quality all around. I now consider the SDS to be a very good scanner for P25 phase 2 systems, and I enjoy features like the large color display, the record feature, the virtual control ability, and easy downloading of data from radioreference. The conventional and analog performance may be fair to mediocre, but at least I can access everything I would want to monitor in once unit. Honestly here at our NY home the SDS is sitting on a shelf because most agencies have not yet switched to the new P25P2 system and my 436 works well here on both the P25P2 and analog agencies. At our NJ place I definitely prefer the SDS 100 as it outperforms the 436 on the P25P2 system where most agencies are now, it receives the one PD on DMR well and adequately receives the one PD still on VHF analog.
Regarding the question of the wall plug, you can leave unications and the Uniden SDS scanners plugged in or in the Unication case, in the optional drop in charger.
Regarding the SDS scanners, some of the comments about "great scanner" vs "poor design" need to be taken in the context of it being the first real "scanner" that could consistently receives P25 Phase 2 simulcast systems. Many of us were totally frustrated with the poor performance of the 436 on these systems when we had purchased it to specifically monitor those systems. There are plenty of old rant posts regarding the 436 in the New Jersey Forum threads on the NJICS. Finally the SDS became available giving us reliable reception of that system in all areas, so the radios shortcomings were overlooked. Now we also have the Unication as another option, one that is high quality all around. I now consider the SDS to be a very good scanner for P25 phase 2 systems, and I enjoy features like the large color display, the record feature, the virtual control ability, and easy downloading of data from radioreference. The conventional and analog performance may be fair to mediocre, but at least I can access everything I would want to monitor in once unit. Honestly here at our NY home the SDS is sitting on a shelf because most agencies have not yet switched to the new P25P2 system and my 436 works well here on both the P25P2 and analog agencies. At our NJ place I definitely prefer the SDS 100 as it outperforms the 436 on the P25P2 system where most agencies are now, it receives the one PD on DMR well and adequately receives the one PD still on VHF analog.
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DMR is $60 if you purchase through Uniden. Sellers tack on a charge to enter the key when anyone can do that.
I cannot compare the two units, as I don't have a Unication with DMR support. However, the SDS100/200 work fine on DMR for me. Also, you won't be able to scan DMR and P25 systems simultaneously on the Unication. You pick one or the other; it's a pager so that's one of the trade-offs.
As belvdr stated, Unication units do not follow trunked DMR systems. For single frequency DMR monitoring you must know and specify the DMR talkgroup in addition to the frequency along with other parameters when programming Unications. For the SDS you just have to enter the frequency and specify either "Digital Only" or "All" under "audio type" and you are good to go. The SDS display will show you the talkgroup number, which is how I was able to program my Unication on the single frequency DMR used by a local school not yet listed in RadioReference.
As far as functionality, the Unication programming can at first be a bit intimidating, but once it is programmed you just turn it on and select the zone and knob position to select the talkgroups of the system you want to scan. This is great when you have a fairly narrow focus of what you want to hear. With just the turn the knob you can switch between 8 sets of talkgroups like "Local PD", Local PD and FD, " Regional PD", "Major Events" or however you want to organize you talkgroups for quick access. However, you cannot add talkgroups, frequencies or otherwise change the programming without using the programming software on a computer. And again, you can only monitor 1 site on 1 system at a time. Or, you can listen to conventional channels but you cannot scan a trunked system and conventional channels.
Programming the SDS via Sentinal software is easier than programming the Unication, but with many more options than previous scanners it is easier to make a mistake and find you cannot receive the system. For example, if you cannot scan a system you programmed it might be because location scanning is enabled or the service type is not enabled. The SDS scanners are much much more versatile than the Unications. You can scan multiple trunked systems and conventional systems at the same time on the SDS. DMR systems can be scanned.The SDS covers all public safety bands while the Unication covers only the two of your choice. Virtual control with logging on the SDS through Proscan lets you see talkgroup activity at a glance, easy to enable recording is helpful in determining activity on a talkgroup. And there are many other features on the SDS like Close call and display customization one might feel are helpful.
In short, I have found that both SDS100 and Unication G5 receive P25P2 systems very well. My suggestion would be that unless your monitoring of a P25P2 system is going to be very focused on limited talkgroups on that one system that your first P25P2 capable radio be the SDS100 or 200. With the SDS you can explore the entire system, find new talkgroups and check out DMR communications. Sensitivity may be less than other Unidens, but for 800mhz reception a dedicated 800mhz antenna on the SDS100 really makes a difference.
Good luck with whatever you decide to purchase!
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