UNICATION RADIOS

[Firefox10]

I have an assortment of scanners, portables, and mobiles. My 8000 and 7000 have great reception opposed to SDS100 and HP436. Im thinking of getting a Unication radio. Because many on these forums brag about reception. I primarily monitor MSP (MA State Police) trunking and UHFs on BAPERN (460's 470's, 480's conventional digital)
Does the Unication work well on MSP trunking? and can scan lists be made for certain trunk groups and conventional?

Asking before I purchase.

Thanks

 

[RaleighGuy]

@Firefox10 Please remember these are pagers, not scanners, and work differently. You can not have trunked systems and conventional on the same knob, but you can put them on separate knobs. The Unication Pagers work well on all P25 Phase 1 and 2 systems. If you are trying to listen on the old Type II system it will not work properly.

 

[radiocrazy123]

Unication does have radios and pagers. The radios are not available for sale in the US market. The OP needs to clarify the model Unication to ensure a proper response.

 

[Firefox10]

thanks, in my area MSP is on the non digital trunking (for the time being)

 

[W8KIC]

@Firefox10 Please remember these are pagers, not scanners, and work differently. You can not have trunked systems and conventional on the same knob, but you can put them on separate knobs. The Unication Pagers work well on all P25 Phase 1 and 2 systems. If you are trying to listen on the old Type II system it will not work properly.

If I’m not mistaken, (it certainly wouldn’t be the first time. Lol!) the G4 & G5 pagers have eight positions per unit. If I wanted to program only PD and FD dispatch frequencies from a P25 800 MHz trunked system, (in my case, I’d be utilizing Ohio MARCS-IP and GCRCN, which is Cleveland proper) how many frequencies can I load into each of the eight positions? Forgive my ignorance as I know very little about these pagers other than the glowing reports their owners post here on RR.
TIA

 

[RaleighGuy]

If I wanted to program only PD and FD dispatch frequencies from a P25 800 MHz trunked system, (in my case, I’d be utilizing Ohio MARCS-IP and GCRCN, which is Cleveland proper) how many frequencies can I load into each of the eight positions?

First you need to understand that if you are programming a trunked system there may be multiple sites which have a control channel and alternate control channels which are the frequencies. You listen to the PD/FD on talkgroups which are not frequencies but channel assignments. That said, you can have one site per knob and 64 talkgroups (or 63 talkgroups if you include a wildcard).

 

[Giddyuptd]

I will say if you get a g5 I'd go with dual band at current majority used you monitor and the future band they'd most likley migrate such as 7/800.

 

[ACKStatic]

I felt compelled to respond because I live in Boston and I have a Unication G5.

As far as decoding and performing on P25 trunked systems, it is hands down the best. It easily outperforms my SDS100, 996, 496. It is also compact, sturdy, and rugged. I use it to monitor Cambridge and it works great. With that said, as pointed out earlier, it is a pager and not a scanner so functionality is a lot more limited than a scanner. There is no channel hold or lockout function, so prioritizing traffic or incidents is limited. You can, however, play around with your scan lists as a workaround (one for ATG, one for PD, FD, BAPERN, etc) which works fine. Boston isn't too heavy in P25 trunked yet, so I still use my 996XT most (even more than my SDS100, which I don't love). If I am traveling somewhere where P25 trunked is the standard, I always program and bring my G5. You will need a good understanding of trunked radios if you buy one and want to program it (unlike newer scanners which often with preprogrammed systems).

I think the key is that commercial grade radios that focus on one type of comms (i.e. P25) consistently outperform multiband scanners, IMHO. A Unication radio with some more scanner type functionality would be awesome, but my fear is that attempts to be more multifunctional will sacrifice performance. The reason the G5 is so good, is because it is commercial grade. Much better than a multiband scanner made of cheap plastic with poor reception and audio.

As for MSP, a G5 would probably only be useful right now in Western Mass as the new P25 system get built out, I don't believe they offer a model for analog trunked systems such as the MSP system still in use for most of the state.

 

[W8KIC]

I felt compelled to respond because I live in Boston and I have a Unication G5.

As far as decoding and performing on P25 trunked systems, it is hands down the best. It easily outperforms my SDS100, 996, 496. It is also compact, sturdy, and rugged. I use it to monitor Cambridge and it works great. With that said, as pointed out earlier, it is a pager and not a scanner so functionality is a lot more limited than a scanner. There is no channel hold or lockout function, so prioritizing traffic or incidents is limited. You can, however, play around with your scan lists as a workaround (one for ATG, one for PD, FD, BAPERN, etc) which works fine. Boston isn't too heavy in P25 trunked yet, so I still use my 996XT most (even more than my SDS100, which I don't love). If I am traveling somewhere where P25 trunked is the standard, I always program and bring my G5. You will need a good understanding of trunked radios if you buy one and want to program it (unlike newer scanners which often with preprogrammed systems).

I think the key is that commercial grade radios that focus on one type of comms (i.e. P25) consistently outperform multiband scanners, IMHO. A Unication radio with some more scanner type functionality would be awesome, but my fear is that attempts to be more multifunctional will sacrifice performance. The reason the G5 is so good, is because it is commercial grade. Much better than a multiband scanner made of cheap plastic with poor reception and audio.

As for MSP, a G5 would probably only be useful right now in Western Mass as the new P25 system get built out, I don't believe they offer a model for analog trunked systems such as the MSP system still in use for most of the state.

Thanks for giving me a quick rundown on the G5. Regarding the so called BUILD QUALITY of the SDS 100: I agree 100% with you that it's pretty pathetic as far as the structural integrity of the unit itself goes (I also have the SDS 200 and unfortunately have had issues with that as well, such as the optical encoder which is cheap garbage and designed to fail in short order) I understand completely that the first iteration of just about anything in existence can and often is less than inspiring but i was kind of hoping that there'd be a bare minimum when it came to the overall build. It obviously reflects poorly on Uniden and sends a questionable signal to the scanner listening base that they aren't all that enthusiastic about the future of scanning itself. Am I the only one who thinks the UI of the programming software from Unication is reminiscent of Windows for Workgroups 3.11?

 

[blackbelter]

There is no channel hold or lockout function,

Unication G series PPS most certainly allows you to program temporally hold on a TG and or block such. My G5 allows me a much deeper listening capability and reliability of a single system than my SDS 200 monitoring salad of multiple systems/sites. In case of Unication " Less is more".

 

[ACKStatic]

Unication G series PPS most certainly allows you to program temporally hold on a TG and or block such.

Yes, but unless I am ill-informed, there is no way to lock on or lock out a talk group during active scanning. Am I worng about this?

 

[RaleighGuy]

Yes, but unless I am ill-informed, there is no way to lock on or lock out a talk group during active scanning. Am I worng about this?

Yes you can do this, in the PPS you can activate the setting/buttons to HOLD or BLOCK individual TGs during scan as @blackbelter just said.

 

[marcotor]

Yes, but unless I am ill-informed, there is no way to lock on or lock out a talk group during active scanning. Am I worng about this?

It's right there in PPS, clear as day. When landing on a TG two softkeys get marked HOLD and Blok

 

[Firefox10]

I felt compelled to respond because I live in Boston and I have a Unication G5.

As far as decoding and performing on P25 trunked systems, it is hands down the best. It easily outperforms my SDS100, 996, 496. It is also compact, sturdy, and rugged. I use it to monitor Cambridge and it works great. With that said, as pointed out earlier, it is a pager and not a scanner so functionality is a lot more limited than a scanner. There is no channel hold or lockout function, so prioritizing traffic or incidents is limited. You can, however, play around with your scan lists as a workaround (one for ATG, one for PD, FD, BAPERN, etc) which works fine. Boston isn't too heavy in P25 trunked yet, so I still use my 996XT most (even more than my SDS100, which I don't love). If I am traveling somewhere where P25 trunked is the standard, I always program and bring my G5. You will need a good understanding of trunked radios if you buy one and want to program it (unlike newer scanners which often with preprogrammed systems).

I think the key is that commercial grade radios that focus on one type of comms (i.e. P25) consistently outperform multiband scanners, IMHO. A Unication radio with some more scanner type functionality would be awesome, but my fear is that attempts to be more multifunctional will sacrifice performance. The reason the G5 is so good, is because it is commercial grade. Much better than a multiband scanner made of cheap plastic with poor reception and audio.

 

[Firefox10]

Well, you most certainly answered every question, and even some I didn't post. Thanks. I'm from north of Boston so I guess were both listening to the same. I agree the sds is not worth the money, crappy everything! I have a 5000 on receive only for 800 in eastern part of state and a 8000 for everything not trunk. I'll keep it that way until they go statewide P25,
Again, thanks for rendering your experience.

 

[W1KNE]

I agree the sds is not worth the money, crappy everything!

I own two SDS series scanners and this is not a true statement at all. The only real issue the SDS series has are overload issues with VHF/UHF and wonky filters that are hard to figure out to someone when they first get one.
And there are ways to correct that.

What the SDS does have going for it are.
* It decodes digital faster than the x36 series and way faster than the 996p2.
* better sounding digital than both mentioned above
* It's purpose of decoding simulcast, for a regular scanner, is in fact superior than the above scanners. I've done side by side testing with it on RISCON and CLMRN and the SDS blows both away.
* The SDS has an incredibly sensitive receiver. (Part of the reason why overload is such an issue).

 

[ACKStatic]

Great info. Thanks. My G5 just got that much better.

 

[jgorman21]

I felt compelled to respond because I live in Boston and I have a Unication G5.

As far as decoding and performing on P25 trunked systems, it is hands down the best. It easily outperforms my SDS100, 996, 496. It is also compact, sturdy, and rugged. I use it to monitor Cambridge and it works great. With that said, as pointed out earlier, it is a pager and not a scanner so functionality is a lot more limited than a scanner. There is no channel hold or lockout function, so prioritizing traffic or incidents is limited. You can, however, play around with your scan lists as a workaround (one for ATG, one for PD, FD, BAPERN, etc) which works fine. Boston isn't too heavy in P25 trunked yet, so I still use my 996XT most (even more than my SDS100, which I don't love). If I am traveling somewhere where P25 trunked is the standard, I always program and bring my G5. You will need a good understanding of trunked radios if you buy one and want to program it (unlike newer scanners which often with preprogrammed systems).

I think the key is that commercial grade radios that focus on one type of comms (i.e. P25) consistently outperform multiband scanners, IMHO. A Unication radio with some more scanner type functionality would be awesome, but my fear is that attempts to be more multifunctional will sacrifice performance. The reason the G5 is so good, is because it is commercial grade. Much better than a multiband scanner made of cheap plastic with poor reception and audio.

As for MSP, a G5 would probably only be useful right now in Western Mass as the new P25 system get built out, I don't believe they offer a model for analog trunked systems such as the MSP system still in use for most of the state.

Excellent response. My G5 is superior to the SDS 100. Mine does have a hold function and a “block” or lockout. It is a very good receiver.

 

[XTS3000]

Excellent response. My G5 is superior to the SDS 100. Mine does have a hold function and a “block” or lockout. It is a very good receiver.

When you get a chance can you let us know what firmware your running in your G5? Thanks.

 

[jgorman21]

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