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Unication G5 Antenna

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policefreak

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So I just pulled the trigger on a Unication G5 and can't wait to get it around Wednesday. What I am trying to figure out is if the little stubby 700/800 antenna can come off and be replaced with another antenna. And if so, is the jack SMA male, or something else?
 

kc5igh

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It's my understanding that the G5's external antenna only works for 700 and 800 MHz signals. There is no way to improve reception for the internal antenna, which depending on the model, receives everything else. Is this correct?
 

03msc

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It's my understanding that the G5's external antenna only works for 700 and 800 MHz signals. There is no way to improve reception for the internal antenna, which depending on the model, receives everything else. Is this correct?

That is what they have said, you are correct.

I am not sure if that changes if you are using a charging base with the amplified speaker, which has its own bnc antenna connection.
 

Thunderknight

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It's my understanding that the G5's external antenna only works for 700 and 800 MHz signals. There is no way to improve reception for the internal antenna, which depending on the model, receives everything else. Is this correct?

Yes. The external antenna is for 7/800 only.
 

sparklehorse

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That is what they have said, you are correct.

I am not sure if that changes if you are using a charging base with the amplified speaker, which has its own bnc antenna connection.

I can confirm that attaching an antenna to the BNC port on the charging base has no affect on VHF. I don't own a UHF flavor G5, but I think it's safe to assume the charging base antenna will not help that band either. So just like the stubby, the charger base antenna only affects 700/800.

.
 

Citywide6

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I can confirm that attaching an antenna to the BNC port on the charging base has no affect on VHF. I don't own a UHF flavor G5, but I think it's safe to assume the charging base antenna will not help that band either. So just like the stubby, the charger base antenna only affects 700/800.

.
I had the opposite experience. I attached coax from the charging base leading to an omnidirectional VHF antenna in the attic and it greatly improved reception on VHF.
 

b1100mac

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I talked with DAVID at unication last week and he said in their testing, oddly enough, the external antenna on the back of the charging unit actually is to the VHF internal antenna, and not the external 800, so you will have to still run the 800 snubby or facsimile on the unit, which I think is a great thing, best of both worlds.
 

sparklehorse

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I had the opposite experience. I attached coax from the charging base leading to an omnidirectional VHF antenna in the attic and it greatly improved reception on VHF.

Weird. I didn't try attaching anything that serious, just the whip that comes with the charging base. Connected or disconnected, I could not distinguish any difference in signal strength on a weak VHF signal.

.
 

W8VI

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I just received the charging base w/ amp speaker and agree that the BNC connector on the back connects to the 800 MHz antenna input on the G4.

Removing the antenna on the G4 then connecting it to the base with its 18" whip antenna produces similar signal and reception results.

I tried the well known Radio Shack 800 MHz 7 inch antenna on the base and it also worked good but in my opinion not as well as an antenna connected directly to the G4. Possibly the base antenna was receiving more interference from other radiators like the PC, switching power supplies, cordless phones, etc. or there could be a slight impedance mismatch somewhere.

I also connected an external bookshelf type speaker from the external output jack on the base and like its audio much better compared to the small speaker on the base unit for loner periods on monitoring.
 
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David_Oney

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After further testing, the amp charger appears to affect both bands. I've had varying reports but I have tested this myself with an ifr1200s.
 

JASII

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Thank you for the update, David. For whatever it is worth, I did attach a magnetic antenna mount to my amplified charger and I have a Pulse / Larsen - Tri Band VHF, UHF, 800 MHz Motorola Style Antenna attached to that mount. That seems to work very well for me. (I also us a cookie sheet as a ground plane in the house to attach the magnetic mount.)

Also, I know I have posted this before, but when I took the longest Motorola DTR550 antenna and threaded it on my Unication G5, it worked very well on 800 MHz. (I don't recall if I ever tried VHF while that antenna was attached though.)


https://www.tessco.com/products/displayProductInfo.do?sku=427126
 

rja1

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At 7 or 8 hundred any adapters will throw the tuning of the antenna way off.

As long as the adapter maintains a close to 50 Ohm impedance, it shouldn't effect antenna resonance. Does the 50 foot long coax cable between you scanner and 800 Mhz yagi change the antenna resonance?

73,
Bob
n2oam
 
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