jason wrote: But I always thought and said that the telemetry systems were a waste of my time and money (or I wasn't very good at working them).
I dunno about that Jason, have you ever spent much time hunting without any type of tracking collar??
Back when I started into hounds tracking collars were just being introduced and I ran dogs for several years without them. You'd dump on a track and then tried to stay within hearing distance of the dogs whatever it took. Lions weren't so bad because the races generally progressed a little bit slower and I could keep up on foot if I had to even if it went for miles. Running bear, on the other hand, was always more of a challenge because the dogs often blew out of the country and you were left all alone in silence. A few buddies and myself used to head up to the Idaho panhandle every year where we dumped out on the first day then spent the rest of the week gathering up dogs. But that was just how you had to do it back then.
Tracking collars really revolutionized the sport of hound dogging and even with my beep beep box I rarely have to leave a dog out overnite. Just getting a signal from a lost dog is reassuring, at least you know you're looking in the right area. Even the poorest telemetry system is a vast improvement over nothing at all and payed for themselves in the money you saved in gas looking for lost dogs.
So a waste of your time and money?? That's gotta be an exageration.