New Unication G1 Tone Voice Pager

[gesucks]

Originally Posted by millrad

What's the story with the Unication G3? Seems to be delayed well past the point it was supposed to be released.

Talked to Unication at IWCE. Was not impressed. Showing same equipment and same story for 2 plus years now with no progress. When asked the tough or technical questions it was very clear they had no clue. Do not plan on seeing a G3 or trunked pager from them anytime soon in IMHO

[pete7919]

Originally Posted by gesucks

Talked to Unication at IWCE. Was not impressed. Showing same equipment and same story for 2 plus years now with no progress. When asked the tough or technical questions it was very clear they had no clue. Do not plan on seeing a G3 or trunked pager from them anytime soon in IMHO

Same at FDIC. Word in the industry is that Unication is imploding over in Taiwan. They cancelled (or Moto did depending on who tells the story) the Minitor V and haven't shipped any alpha pagers in months. They've been advertising the G3 in bits and spurts with different images and specs. Same with their proprietary U3 digital radio. Losing the income from the Motorola equipment has to be hard on cashflow. Look at how many M5's are out there (and 4's and 3's). Unication made all of them and they are not making the M6. In fact, I believe that Unication did pull the plug themselves. The reason I say that is because of the reports of lack of parts for the 5's. If Moto did it wouldn't they stock up on pagers and parts to honor warranties and support parts into the future? I think Unification did it because they released the G1 and thought "we'll cut them off and steal the market". Talk about cutting off your nose... Also, I'm hearing a lot of people with reception issues on the new Minitor 6. If they had the proper time to announce and test it they'd have all that sorted out prior to having them in widespread use. What good is a pager if it doesn't go off?

Back to the root question. If you think about a digital trunked pager the market doesn't support it. I'm not too technical but look at all the requirements you need on a system and the cost of purchasing will be through the roof. Most departments that use pagers are volunteer and have a hard time funding the basics let alone fancy equipment. The pie just gets smaller and smaller to the point where it's not feasible.

Just my opinion, of course. I'd love to have a digital voice pager in my system. It would certainly be great from an operational/awareness standpoint. I just don't see it happening. Ever.

[Swolfe2]

I can tell you that as a Dealer for Unication that they are a very strong supplier and have been outstanding to work with. We have sold several hundred G1's the last year and the customers love them. Minor issues have been resolved without question or delay. As far as the U3 or G3 all I have to do is point you to current problems with a major pager/radio company with their current offering to tell you that getting a product out before it is ready will bite you in the butt as well. When the U3 and G3 get here it will have been worth the wait. Keep in mind that what the customer wants and is willing to pay for it is part of the issue. A trunking pager is not an easy issue.

[RayleCom]

We are a dealer in NW Ohio, serving Ohio, SE Michigan, and Eastern Indiana. I'm proud to say that these pagers receive better than the M5, are more durable than anything out there. I have been all over with our demo pager. We have been on board since the begining and how to be till the end. This unit allows you to program multiple Dept tones in one unit and never miss a call. I have a Dept that scans 4 different frequencies looking for 6 sets of tones and they love it. It is not only software upgradable bit firmware upgradable so the demo I got over a year ago will be upgraded to except wav files at the end of the year. ?

[fireboat61]

I remember reading some articles of the G3 and G4 model verisons as well google images showed a possible design for it. The article stated that by the end of 2013 the new digital trunking pager would be announced. Its now August 2104 and no new info has been released. What happened to that possible model? Is there still plans to release this style pager, which I would love to own. Does anyone have any info on this ?

[cwfd336]

Originally Posted by cdknapp

The price, depending on who you buy a Minitor 5 and what options you have it, are competitive. The G1 comes stock with ALL options (scan, second channel [and 62 more] and 16 minutes of voice recording standard; NO options to buy.
And Unication is running an incentive right now where if you buy a new G1 pager and trade in any make/model of working voice pager you get $75 off. That would definitely bring the price of a G1 down below a M5.
The stock batteries that come with the G1 are good batteries. Nice thing about it is that as it uses 2 AAA batteries, so you can not only use any rechargeable AAA with it, but also use alkaline AAA's for times when power (to recharge) is not available. Talk a look around Amazon or E Bay and get the highest capacity you can find, just check user feedback on what you're looking to buy (there are some cheap/crap batteries out and about)
The G1 will use more power if you use it to monitor, and a bit more if you scan with it, but my experience has been that overall battery life is very good. Even in scan mode I am getting 40+ hours (actual use time) between charges. And the stock charger allows you to keep a spare set of AAAs charged outside of the pager, so you can always have a charged back up set ready to go.

If you have any further questions about the G1, please PM me.

Can you please PM about possibly ordering a G1. Thanks for your time.

[webby52]

Can anyone offer any programming advice? I have 10 of these and the dealer didnt have time to program them for me so I took them home and attempted to figure it out. I am having a problem with the on/off duty. We currently have a "duty" crew over night for the squad and if there is a call from 1900-0600 the comm center hits that certain "duty" tone. In the moto pagers we use A to alert everything, B was the duty setting, whereas the pager only went off if the general tone was heard and it ignores the duty tone. C scans the second channel and D is the same as A except its vibrate only.

[drewhahn]

Originally Posted by webby52

Can anyone offer any programming advice? I have 10 of these and the dealer didnt have time to program them for me so I took them home and attempted to figure it out. I am having a problem with the on/off duty. We currently have a "duty" crew over night for the squad and if there is a call from 1900-0600 the comm center hits that certain "duty" tone. In the moto pagers we use A to alert everything, B was the duty setting, whereas the pager only went off if the general tone was heard and it ignores the duty tone. C scans the second channel and D is the same as A except its vibrate only.

I think you do it this way. In [G1], up in Channel List, enter your main frequency twice. For this example, the first one will be called "EMS Duty Crew" and the second will be called "EMS Non-Duty Crew". When configuring Duty Crew, in the "Channel Signaling Tone Setting", enable all tones. When configuring the Non-Duty Crew, enable all tones except for the duty crew tone. Note they both monitor the same frequency, but you are entering them twice (listening to different tones) so that you may assign them to different knobs.

Then, assign the following in [H]:

Knob 1:
Function Mode: Selective Call
Reference Info: EMS Duty Crew
Alert Mode: Tone and Vibrate

Knob 2:
Function Mode: Selective Call
Reference Info: EMS Non-Duty Crew
Alert Mode: Tone and Vibrate

Knob 3:
(You'll need to create a scan list and use it.)

Knob 4:
Function Mode: Selective Call
Reference Info: EMS Duty Crew
Alert Mode: Vibrate

[mars71984]

I could a codeplug if someone would like to send me one

[Buddy1109]

I purchased a G1 pager a few weeks ago along ith 4 other members of my department. All of our pagers batter life are last less than 12 hours and the audio went out on my pager 2 hours after I programmed it for the first time. I have to say I am not real happy. I have been involved in radio work for many years and truly not happy. I have issues with programming features as well. I do love the concept but they have may issues that need addressing.

[KC9UNK]

I've had my G1 for over a month and I'm ready to give it away for free because I'd feel guilty charging someone for it. Huge flaw in the software/firmware set around entering your tones. It will not accept any of mine.It rejects them and brings up a warning about spacing and kicks them back to whatever it wants to. My minitor 3 ,4 and 5 had no problems with my county tones. I've brought this up to 3 different techs from different states and still no solution. It might as well be a $30 used scanner from ebay cause it does me no purpose. Even under user defined it will not allow me to enter my tones. What's the point of user defined if it will not allow the user to enter their desired tones???
Example : Single long tone 855.5 it rejects it with a warning and kicks it down to 854.2

[ff_jason]

Originally Posted by mars71984

I could a codeplug if someone would like to send me one

The codeplug is available from Unication website.

[brian86]

I use to be a dealer for Unication and had simular issues. If you want to pm me your email address I can look at your codeplug here and see if I can help for free.

[KC9UNK]

firefighterkk221@gmail.com

[DisasterGuy]

Brian- Did you ever find an a tual fix for those issues? We have had several departments start to migrate to the G1 but we are officially holding the support line at this point to the Minitors until there is a proven track record on them and availability of in-house repair parts.

[ADMarchionda]

Does anyone know how to get ahold of CDKNAPP. I tried to send him a PM and it won't allow me to.

[mlmummert]

This thing supposedly allows for up to 64 channels, 8 channels in each of the 8 zones. How many channels can actually be monitored simultaneously? For example, the Minitor VI can have 5 channels programmed but can only scan 2 at any point in time.

[westernme963]

Only 8 channels at a time I'm aware of. You have to manually go in and select which bank you want to monitor.

[mlmummert]

Originally Posted by westernme963

Only 8 channels at a time I'm aware of. You have to manually go in and select which bank you want to monitor.

Yes but can you actually scan all 8 of those channels at a time in one bank / zone?

[westernme963]

I believe one of them has to be a scan list so yes you can scan at least 7 at a time, possibly 8-can't remember if you can have it as an active frequency and a scan list at the same time.