Which dual freq. model G5 do you feel is more suitable for police scanning?

Skylers Channel How much is the G5

Justin K I didn’t have my unit on at that time. That would have been a crazy scenario to listen to though. Years ago I caught a police shooting on a scanner. Very sad for the officer and his family, I heard his current status is ok and hope he recovers quickly. Last I heard they found the stolen truck but the suspect is still on the run.

Oh no doubt. Returned it though. The G4 gets perfect reception with it's little 2 inch stubby antenna so I just just use that one now.

DW - we are practically neighbors. I'm in Westfield, IN. What did you buy?

I did read several things regarding the antenna and modifying or switching it on the Whistler. I just wanted it to work well out of the box is all. The Unication has been perfect out of the box so far. All with a stubby, durable 1" antenna lol. I do think the Whistler is a great scanner but for the P25 system in my area though nothing touches the Unication, especially out of the box.

cpro48609 Yeah, well, try using it to actually respond to 911 calls :-(

Not too bad at all. I did a video on programming it a couple of years ago: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/hteTa5pznKm7np8.html&t

I've got the same one also with VHF 7 and 800 that's currently for sale any buyers??????

Do you still have your G5 for sale?

They don't have them broken down quite the same as Saginaw, but I found this on radioreference: www.dropbox.com/s/rwe1sqzi8urso22/fire1.PNG?dl=0

A scanner is much better at a few different things as the Unication is more of a dedicated radio. it doesn't scan other frequencies at all so there's that. In this case I wanted it specifically for police, fire, and medical, in my area which is p25 trunking. For that, the Unication blows the other scanners out of the water, it's not even close. But for the other features you mentioned, other than what I want to listen to, yes a scanner would be more practical. To cover all bases, I guess its preferred to just have both :p

@@ComputerProMedia yes and it also depends on your location or area could be a mix of analog and digital or all analog a unication only competes against itself not against a true scanner but what matters is if it works for you is what counts

Tracy Mcmurtrie yeah the software isn't too hard after you get used to it. There are a few things that have to be set exactly right like the site ID numbers and so forth. Then you need to enter the primary and secondary control channels. Then you can enter your talk groups after the other stuff is in there correctly. It's easier if you plan it out on paper or something first. Figure out how you want the Channels broken down to make it easier to use. It helps if you were on a fire department or something like that. I've used Public Safety radios in this county so I just set mine up the way our PD has them for the most part. Basically I have channel 1 as pretty much a scan everything channel. Channel 2 is just police and fire dispatch since all the major calls go out over those. You have to think of it that way since there's no lock out etc. so if you're scanning everything and something exciting happens on the police side you want to be able to hurry up and switch the knob to police dispatch only so you can lock on that conversation without them stopping talking for a second and then picking up medical or some other traffic. To me it feels more like a police radio than a scanner to be honest. It just doesn't have the talking feature.

What they told me was that it's firmware upgradeable but that particular upgrade will have a charge for it. Recouping licensing fees maybe who knows? I think i'm good around here with phase one for a few years at least. Also, they didn't mention any release date for the upgrade.

cpro48609 unfortunately most of my area I went digital Phase 2 p25. from what I understand these unication pagers are remarkable

the NEW Whistler TRX-100 and 200 will do Phase 2 and it will have Bluetooth Audio as well. expect them to be out Q4 2018.

In simulcast a better antenna makes it worse, less is more. Even using a paperclip will improve reception in simulcast.

Hi Tracy. I got it from Rays Pager Sales. www.rayspagersales.com Very nice people over there and very helpful! The G4 was around $560 and it's been an awesome unit!

Landon Vogt got it from rayspagersales.com

@@ComputerProMedia how do you program pager

@@tangiew3357 It's been a while but here is a video I did a few years ago that might help. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/hteTa5pznKm7np8.html&t

Mark Plott This device has not been approved by the F.C.C.This device may not be offered for sale or lease or be sold or leased until approval of the F.C.C. has been obtained. The information shown is preliminary and may be subject to change without notice or obligation.

Why do you keep pushing these two receivers to people who are obviously interested in monitoring P25 Phase II trunking systems. When you know that the Icom R30 and AOR AR DV-10 can not decode P25 Phase II signals and can not trunk track. I am sure you are also aware that the AOR AR DV-10 has a serious frequency drift flaw that can only truly be fixed with a new hardware design. This flaw makes trying to monitor digital transmissions very difficult. Many dealers have stopped selling the AOR. For a $1000+ receiver with such a major flaw, it should not be recommended.

no

Hard to say as it really depends on your specific needs. For general scanning and to find new freqs, mall security, dept store stuff etc then the trx/436 would be your best bet. If you just want to listen to public safety stuff (police, fire, ems) and your area uses a P25 multicast system like ours then the G4/G5 is by far the best bet. It's pretty much an actual police radio minus the talking feature. It picks up that well. The only diff between the G4 and G5 is the extra VHF frequencies. I only needed the public safety so getting the G4 saved a little money.

Sounds good. I'll look up your county ops when I get back tonight. Does your county dispatch all rescue runs and fires over something like fire primary? You could have ch1 all dispatch both fire and ems. Ch2 could be just fire dispatch in case ch 1 gets too chatty w ems calls. Ch 3 maybe fire ops, ch 4 fire admin, ch 5 ems to hospital. Still have one left. Could put scan all pd, fd, and ems on 8. Ch 1 and 8 are easiest to get to since they are the last knob turns. I never got into the fire paging stuff but you can do advanced options if you're a fireman like alert tones recording and things like that. For that you would probably have to talk to either Unication or maybe Ray if you get it from his place he's really good with that stuff too. Unication has really good support also. I called them a couple times and they answered my questions really quickly.

The Unication? If so I did a software mini tutorial here: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/hteTa5pznKm7np8.html&t It's pretty easy once you get used to the format. A little different than a reg scanner program though.

Thank you. I will watch it. I live in St Louis and have the SLATER P25 system.

Shawn Willis superrr

I believe Midland has a P25 phase 1 so it should work great.

OK cool thank you for replying back to me I thought about getting that just not a lot of radios out there will go for that frequency

Midland is also a four tower simulcast as Saginaw. The unidens tend to work best on those, especially the SDS models, expensive but work flawlessly on simulcast and are scanner. This video was made before the SDS' were released. SDS 100 SDS 200

Whats your email address. I'll send the software link plus the info.

The 1" stubby antenna on the G4 has been working perfect since day 1, no need for an outdoor one. Probably would have helped on the Whistler though for sure.

www.hamradio.com/detail.cfm?pid=H0-003652 You need the discone antenna. It is a game changer. The airplane band needs the outside antenna.

Whats email, I'll send you link.

That's what some people were saying. I don't have the Whistler anymore I just have the G4 which ironically has a tiny inch and a half antenna that works like magic lol. Different technology I think.

Well one has a specific antenna the other is set on one frequency from I’ve heard the antenna that come on any of the scanners are not great at all

I could prob send a file with the fire and ems already setup. You would have to install software to upload it though.

Would depend on version, RS800 ant works well but the LSM issue is more to do with simulcasting & location.

YES, I use a Diamond RH77CA for my Pro-688 which has a BNC , they also make a SMA version as well.

I found out that the smaller antenna does the best.

Hey Tracy, all is good over here. I'll send Ray the most recent file I have to his email. He should be able to build off of that.

In simulcast a better antenna makes it worse, less is more. Even using a paperclip will improve reception in simulcast.

golf-n-guns looks like one but just buttons for other things. It's a receiver only.

OK, thanks. I posted that question before I got to the part of your video where you said "it's not a transceiver". Wishful thinking on my part! The Unication is a bit pricey, but seems solid! Definitely on my shopping list. I'll wait for phase 2, like the others...while I check out your other videos! Thanks.

You will need these numbers (System ID 796) & (WACN 92493) also. According to radioreference.com Your primary and alternate control channels are: 853.6375c is primary, 853.450a is alternate. You'll need to enter them both. Not sure what the letters are for I didn't enter any letters in mine. Your talkgroups (St Clair) right under mine (Saginaw) near the bottom of this page: www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?sid=100 How you break the channels down really depends on what you want to hear. More police or fire or medical etc. The breaking them down on separate channels on the knob selector is say you hear something exciting from police like a chase or something like that and you want to hear and follow what happens. If all your channels are mixed and they stop talking for a few then you might pick up a long conversation from an ambulance to hospital patient report or something and miss what you wanted to hear. So what you want to hear is an important planning step. Also keep in mind that (in our area anyway) all calls go out over primary dispatch channels for PD and Fire. I keep dispatch separate from Admin channels. That way I hear where fire's are and rescue calls but I don't get the Ops channels when they are working the fire as that info is important to them but not so meaningful to me as I already know they are there and working on the fire. I broke mine down as follows: ch1: Scan all 3 PD, Fire & EMS to hospital. ch2: Dispatch only for both Police and Fire. ch3: Police dispatch only. ch4: Police LEIN. Used to run people for warrants, driving records etc. ch5: Police PTAC. Used for situations between officers at a scene and events. ch6: Police ADMIN. Usually officers talking to their headquarters. ch7: Fire OPS (may change this as it's more meaningful to them working the fire, not so much to hear) ch8: EMS to hospital. I then usually scan on ch1 unless there are lots of EMS to hospital (somedays there are) then I may switch to ch2 for the majority of regular calls. I get both Police, Fires and Rescue calls this way. Then I follow stuff by simply changing the channel knob. So for example if i'm on ch2 and I hear something like "units we have a rollover accident at xx intersection..... I hear the PD call on ch2 quickly followed by the Fire rescue dispatched. I hear when they arrive and the basic traffic about the accident. If I want to follow how the patients are doing I may switch to ch8 and try to catch the EMS to hospital traffic. I usually don't scan PTAC and ADMIN channels unless I hear someone request to go to one of those channels since you might miss important dispatched calls if your monitoring too much at a time. Also I'm setup for County stuff. I don't live in the City but I have City stuff setup on zone 2. You basically can setup all your stuff in what they call a 'Zone', all the knob channels etc. Then you can setup other zones with different channels. Keep in mind switching channels (knob positions) is pretty quick and simple, switching Zones requires a few button pushes but it's not too bad. I have City on zone 2, State PD stuff on zone 3 along with DNR, etc.

NO, you can on the ICOM IC-R30A and the AOR DV-10 they both have MANUAL RF Gain. the Squelch is separate.

GoPro camera angle :p

I would definitely recommend Rays Pager Sales. www.rayspagersales.com/

Already returned the Whistler right after the video. The G4 has been near perfect though! Even with it's default 1 inch stubby antenna lol.

lol. Those are the talkgroup's. So the top one 2694 looks like that's main fire dispatch. I'm guessing that all fire calls are dispatched over it. Once you enter the numbers we mentioned before then you have to enter the individual talkgroup ID's. So for EMS main dispatch looks like its 2695. Those are the numbers you would enter. I'd keep the Alpha tags the same, easier like that. So 74F911 looks like 911 for F (fire). You can use different names but I found it's easier to follow and edit things if the Alpha tags are left the same. You will learn them in no time after you hear calls a few times.

Not really to be honest. The 2 inch stubby antenna on the G4 works so amazingly awesome that I just use that scanner now for all my P25 trunked stuff. It's not really a scanner, it's more of an actual public safety radio without the transmit feature. I think that's why it works so much better then regular scanners do. If I needed to pick up other (non P25) traffic, then i'd opt for a regular scanner.

Adding more antenna only makes simulcast reception worse, less antenna is more in simulcast

Mic Mucky I agree! The crazy thing is how well the Unication G4 picks up with a stubbly little 2” antenna lol. Works flawless!

@@ComputerProMedia a know yeah picks the signals straight up but the Whistler has a broader frequency range the g4 only single band on p25 700 to 800mhz and it's dedicated to apco p25