Unication *New* G4 and G5 pagers/ somewhat limited scanner

[IAmSixNine]

03msc and ccfd7031 your absolutely correct.
Under Setting D 3 Protocol i had options for P25 Tunking, P25 Conventional, 2-Tone, 5-Tone, MDC1200, and DVOA. With out actually programming in non P25 conventional i did not think it had the option for just a plane jane conventional channel. But when programming in an additional 800 channel i know is not P25 i now see an option for Protocol Type to be CSQ. So i either missed that during my initial programming or since the last two firmware updates its been changed.

I can admit i made a mistake. Thank you for pointing that out.

NOW a UHF/700/800 would be in my future since i am surrounded by police and fire on analog conventional UHF.

ccfd7031 sorry about my earlier comment about it not doing conventional analog. I knew it did paging but also thought had to meet the criteria for paging otherwise the channel wouldnt open.

 

[ccfd7031]

I'll admit it has some pretty neat features if they work like I think they do. Monitor mode, all band scan, has a bunch of nice scanning options, the ability to use FFFF as a wildcard for WACN, SYS ID etc..

There are a few things I would have liked to see done differently.

One is the priority talkgroup id option. It seems more or less a priority scan for a trunking system. The problem is when it's turned on all talkgroups are priority via the way they are arranged in the list. Higher up the list is higher priority and it sounds like it will interrupt other talkgroups in progress when a higher talkgroup becomes active. I would rather just be able to assign a Primary and secondary priority, or even several, but I wouldn't want others to interrupt at all. Hope that makes sense.

The other big thing I would like to see is a Nuisance delete button to lockout channels/talkgroups temporarily.

That's more or less a wish list. My main thing is the ability to have V/U/7-800 all in one pager. Do that and I'm sold. Phase2 and DMR would just be icing on the cake.

 

[JASII]

Unication *New* G4 And G5 Pagers/Somewhat Limited Scanner

I received my Unication G5 Monday. I charged it up that evening and experimented with the programming software yesterday. I was able to successfully program National weather on 162.550 and it receives great. However, when I tried programming the Minnesota ARMER system I could not revive anything when my other scanner was hearing traffic. Can anybody suggest where I should start to troubleshoot this? I have wtched a video and it helped quite a bit, but obviously there is something that I am missing?

Maybe I should call Unication support right away, but I thought that I would check with people here first. Also, I believe I have the most current programming software, could there be a firmware update for the pager itself?

 

[KevinC]

I received my Unication G5 Monday. I charged it up that evening and experimented with the programming software yesterday. I was able to successfully program National weather on 162.550 and it receives great. However, when I tried programming the Minnesota ARMER system I could not revive anything when my other scanner was hearing traffic. Can anybody suggest where I should start to troubleshoot this? I have wtched a video and it helped quite a bit, but obviously there is something that I am missing?

Maybe I should call Unication support right away, but I thought that I would check with people here first. Also, I believe I have the most current programming software, could there be a firmware update for the pager itself?

Just a WAG, but did you set the "Site ID" and "RFSS ID" to a site you can hear?

 

[JASII]

Unication *New* G4 and G5 Pagers/Somewhat Limited Scanner

Just a WAG, but did you set the "Site ID" and "RFSS ID" to a site you can hear?

Thank you very much for that. You are right on the mark. I had selected FFF for wildcard. Now I have selected the "Site ID" and "RFSS ID" and I am getting some traffic.

One interesting thing, though, is I am getting weak signal strength and sometimes "Out Of Range". This is a simulcast site. Have I forced it to a site that is a bit too far away for me? Should I change some certain setting for simulcast?

Oh, I am also listening on a scanner at the same time and it gets better signal strength than the Unication. That is leading me to believe that I am somehow forcing it to a site that might not be the closest one to me.

 

[ccfd7031]

What system and site are you trying to monitor?

 

[JASII]

Unication *New* G4 and G5 Pagers/Somewhat Limited Scanner

The Minnesota ARMER system. The Dakota County simulcast site.

UPDATE: I am trying the UHF (400 MHz) antenna from my Motorola XTS5000 and it is coming in gangbusters now! The 763-870 MHz antenna is what came with the dual band VHF-800 G5. Should it have been a different antenna for the G5? I guess maybe need to spring for an actual 800 MHz antenna for this.

I am now trying the antenna from my 900 MHz Motorola DTR550. The performance with that is equal to, or better than, the rubber duck antenna from my UHF (440 MHz) Motorola XTS5000.

 

[ccfd7031]

I'm sure you know all this but make sure you put the sys id (40F) and WACN (BEE07) along with the RFSS and site. These may require a Dec to Hex conversion I can't remember. You may also want to put in all freqs for that site in case the information in the database is wrong and one of the control channels isn't marked correctly. On that same note, not sure how accurate that information is for any of it. If something doesn't work you may have to verify system info via pro96com or something similar, maybe even another scanner.

I would put talkgroups in instead of using a wildcard but that's just preference and the fact that I've not used one of these yet so I'm not sure how well the FFFF talkgroup wildcard will work.

It sounds like your getting the control channel since you're picking up traffic so I'm not sure why it would be going out of range unless the information is wrong and it's actually listening to a neighboring site.

Keep us updated. Looking for all the reviews I can get.

 

[ccfd7031]

JASII, didn't get notified of your reply since you edited your message.

The supplied antenna should be working fine since what you are trying to monitor is in its intended range. The fact that the UHF XTS antenna works just reinforces that idea. I would contact them about a dual band antenna. That may be a dual band just not marked.

Glad your receiving the system well now! I still wonder if it's not picking up a neighboring site or something though.

 

[phirephoto]

Thank you very much for that. You are right on the mark. I had selected FFF for wildcard. Now I have selected the "Site ID" and "RFSS ID" and I am getting some traffic.

One interesting thing, though, is I am getting weak signal strength and sometimes "Out Of Range". This is a simulcast site. Have I forced it to a site that is a bit too far away for me? Should I change some certain setting for simulcast?

Oh, I am also listening on a scanner at the same time and it gets better signal strength than the Unication. That is leading me to believe that I am somehow forcing it to a site that might not be the closest one to me.

I've always entered all control channels and all sites.. But my system may be different...

 

[cpetraglia]

When asking about firmware it would help to have something to compare it to. So please list what current version your running.

0.9-0.14A_R11J. This has been out for quite a while. I obtained it a few weeks back while trying to solve my BT problem. There is a new one expected soon.

 

[Thunderknight]

Thank you very much for that. You are right on the mark. I had selected FFF for wildcard. Now I have selected the "Site ID" and "RFSS ID" and I am getting some traffic.

I had some trouble making the FF wildcard work too. (I think I tried FF, I see you did FFF. I wonder which is correct?). But for systems I programmed with the actual Site ID, RFSS ID, Control channels, etc. it works great and has no problems. (I also programmed a specific list of TGs, but the monitor function works well too).

One interesting thing, though, is I am getting weak signal strength and sometimes "Out Of Range". This is a simulcast site. Have I forced it to a site that is a bit too far away for me? Should I change some certain setting for simulcast?

If it's simulcast, it won't "select" anything...simulcast is purely a function of the transmitting side, the receiver doesn't select anything as all of the site signals are the same. Make sure you only put in the control channel(s) for the site that you want to hear and turned off full spectrum scan. That should force it to just that one site. (If that is what you want to happen).

 

[IAmSixNine]

JASII if your scanner is getting better reception then the Unication pager my guess is that you are indeed monitoring a different site.
Look at your scanner, get the control channel its locked onto, then go to RR and match that up with the site that control channel is assigned to. Is it the same as the one you programmed in?
Location wise you would know best which site should work. So play around with the site settings and double check that. I have a Uniden BCD436HP and Radio Shack Pro-668 and my G4 has an amazing reciever. My G4 is on par with my XTS2500 and APX portables. So if your scanner is picking up better then your G5 my first guess is programming issue. After that may be a hardware issue or antenna issue.

 

[JASII]

Unication *New* G4 And G5 Pagers/Somewhat Limited Scanner

This morning, on my drive in to work, I brought my Unication G5 along. I noticed something interesting. I was not receiving all of the talk-groups that I had programmed in. The first few talk-groups that were programmed in came in just great. One of the things I am wondering is if there actually is a limit on the number of talk-groups that it will monitor. I programmed in something like 70 or 80 talk-groups.

Somewhere in the past I recall reading that the G5 would only monitor 64 talk-groups. The PPS allowed my to program more than the 64, but it did not seem to be getting them. I was listening on a Home Patrol HP-1 to the same sub-system and it was getting talk-groups that the G5 was not receiving.

Has anybody here ran into this issue? If so, what did you do to correct it? I am at work now, but I may try re-programming talk-groups to see if I somehow made a programming error.

I did notice that with regards to zones, it would allow me to select new zones up to 128, but then the NEW tab changed color slightly and would no longer allow me to add additional zones. Could it be that the PPS firmware should have stopped me at 64 and not allowed me to enter more than 64 talk-groups?

Can anybody here verify that they have programmed talk-groups higher than the 64th position and actually received those talk-groups?

 

[IAmSixNine]

JASII lets get a bit of clarification here.
You can confirm that the HP1 and G5 were getting or not getting the talk groups at the same time? Its important to know this as a system that large can have TG not active on a particular site. So even though you have them programmed if they are not active on that site you wont get the traffic.
As you i do recall reading that 64 talk group was the limit per channel. Unfortunately im not able to test that.
Im guessing you fixed the issue with poor reception and modified which site you were monitoring.

 

[ccfd7031]

Also take a look at how priority scan works if you are using that feature as it may affect what you are hearing at any given time if more than one tg is active.

 

[diskmonger]

Also take a look at how priority scan works if you are using that feature as it may affect what you are hearing at any given time if more than one tg is active.

There is a bug where if you are scanning a P25 system it acts like you are using the priority TG feature even when you are not. TGs at the top of the list are given priority, which is great if you want that feature but it seems to be stuck on by default.

Really hoping this is fixed in the next firmware update.

 

[diskmonger]

To further explain:

If your first couple TGs in your scan list are super active you may never hear TGs further down the list because it's constantly jumping back to those TGs that it thinks are priority.

 

[JASII]

Unication *New* G4 And G5 Pagers/Somewhat Limited Scanner

.....I was not receiving all of the talk-groups that I had programmed in. The first few talk-groups that were programmed in came in just great.....

Well, the learning curve is still going up. I got home and looked a bit closer at PPS. I noticed that I had programmed a number of talk-groups in the D-4 tab, HOWEVER, I had only selected three in the tab D-5 selected talk-group list, thus those were the only three I was receiving!

 

[Thunderknight]

There is a bug where if you are scanning a P25 system it acts like you are using the priority TG feature even when you are not. TGs at the top of the list are given priority, which is great if you want that feature but it seems to be stuck on by default.

Really hoping this is fixed in the next firmware update.

I have noticed the same thing...I hope they fix it as well as there is a checkbox...it just doesn't seem to turn it on/off.