Post your Garmin Astro 220 review

[DesertDweller]

Can't get this unit to change update rate or freq. Says it can't comm. with collar even though it will track it. touching antennae to GPS port on collar, any ideas?
Thanks,Ed

I've had communication problems before, usually after turning it on-off a few times and messing with it, it would finally link up, you might try monkeying with it for awhile.

[eROKv]

The garmin astro 220/dc30 is about the best thing to ever happen to my bearhunting - BUT....

there is one problem. it probably doesnt effect everyone, but here in wisconsin, pretty much everyone uses VHF marine band radios for communication in our trucks. they dont use the same frequency as the collar transmitters, but its close enough. apparently the high power transmissions from the marine radio fries the sensitive reciever in the astro over a period of time. i just recieved my third warranty replacement astro from garmin. they have been very very good about replacing the units that go bad. but now after they have figured out what is causing the problem, they told me that they will not be replacing any more of mine. so i felt it was time to share thier dirty little secret. i was told that they may try to do something to adress this issue in the future, but to not hold my breath.

im going to try keeping the two antennas as far apart as i can and see if that will help, but basically i will be throwing 500 bucks down the shitter this summer/fall if it ends up happening again. if i would have known this to begin with, i would've never bought the thing in the first place. the worst part is that its almost worth it because they work so well. the least they could do is have some kind of disclaimer in the literature somewhere.

[BIG J]

10-4 im an #2 also. its to bad that 1 out 6 people i have talked to at garmin actually know that there is a problem. the other 5 people i talked to said they havent heard of such a thing. and as far as they were concerned go ahead and use all the antenas with any radio. what kind of antena are u using eROKv for the mag.

[eROKv]

i use the external magnetic mount truck antenna for the astro. it was always fairly close to the marine antenna on the roof of the truck (within 2-3 feet). im hoping that moving them far apart will at least slow down the burnout of the receiver. im also contemplating switching to low power on my marine whenever possible, although that would be a huge pain in the butt. anything i can do to prolong the astro's usefulness.

[Eric Muff]

This a real problem,we had one unit slowly lose tracking ability and quit altogether!
We use truck radios as well and although I can't understand how this can happen it obviously does.I suppose it would be the same as having a handheld sitting on the seat of the truck and screeching at you while you key the base radio mic.The GPS must be doing a similar thing but you can't here it as it has no speaker.
I will contact Garmin later to discuss the problem but just wondering if it would make sense to just"stop all tracking"while you need to use the radio.Would the Astro turn off the"ear"and possibly save the system or would it continue to recieve the signal and burn out anyway?

[tman308]

The Problem you run in to with your truck radio is that it is usually pushing around 50 watts of power. Most of the channels that guys use on their radios are very close in Frequency to the Garmin. The only way to avoid damaging the unit is to turn the Astro off completely when talking on the radio. It shouldn't affect your collars as they only transmit. Using your handhelds around the unit has no effect on it. You have to remember that the collars are only pushing 3 watts of power so the Astro is tuned to recieve that, you throw the truck radio into the mix and you effectively fry the reciever in the Astro.

Hope that helps

[bluedogs249]

tman308,
Does that mean that if one uses frequencies above 158.000 it won't affect the Astro?

[tman308]

I would say that you will still have a problem because of the power of the mobile radio and that 158 isn't that far off from the Murs frequencies. The time the problems occur is when the Astro is in the Truck with you. If your buddy is in the Truck and you are with the dogs and have your Astro with you it shouldn't cause a problem.

[Eric Muff]

Just back from the mountains bear hunting and have to say I was very disappointed with the system for the first time since I bought it last spring.Kicked the dogs out on a strike and lost signal within 200 yds and never did get it back at all,the Astro burned out.Second one in two weeks!!!!
We ran 2 bears that day and had 2 great trees so it was a great day but that Astro burning out sure turned the tables.My friends had Astros as well so I had to lean on them for information which worked out alright but it sure opened my eyes to what can and will happen to you if you use two way radios.For the guys that are planning on selling the tracking box I would caution you,your gonna need it with this system.
I am going to suggest it may even be smart to have a spare unit in your bag for when the inevitable occurs and it will.If you use two way radios you are gonna need to turn this thing off every time you talk on the radio,no two ways about it.Very disappointing.

[eROKv]

im hoping theres someone out there that might know for sure, but the current theory is that turning the astro off won't even help this problem. the receiver is still going to get the energy from the radio transmission through the antenna whether the astros power is on or not. its even going to get it if you unplug the external antenna and throw it in the glovebox or whatever. any electronics geeks out there that could confirm this?

[bluedogs249]

Here is what the engineers at Garmin stated:


“It is hard to say for certain, but I would think that turning the unit off (or stop tracking all dogs in the Dog List) would help prevent the damage from occurring to the receiver. However, to be sure, I would suggest removing the antenna from the Astro if it is possible.

I think the majority of the cases where damage occurs is when the user is using the mag-mount antenna which is positioned close to the other VHF radio's external antenna. The mag-mount antenna is much higher gain which means that more energy is delivered to the receiver.”

This quote is directly from Garmin via e mail to me.

[bluedogs249]

Somewhere someone wrote that Garmin was aware of this problem and a hardware change would fix the issue.
Does anyone know there that quote is??

[Budd Denny]

If you are using the receiver in your truck as a normal GPS, (just using it as a map source) and not tracking dogs would the radio still fry em. I have a Lowrance that I have had in my truck for the last 6-7 years, is turned on 24/7, never turned off unless changing batteries. It doesn't seem to have a problem recapturing satellite signal after all these years of being exposed to my mobile VHF.

[eROKv]

here is the email:

"Thank you for contacting Garmin International.

I will be happy to assist you. The only way this could be prevented is
by changing hardware inside the Astro which at this point will not
happen. Garmin can not be responsible for damage that is done by another
manufacturers devices. To prevent this from happening in the future I
would limit the use of any type of high frequency devices around your
Astro. Like Debbie stated in her last email, this ordinarily isn't
covered under warranty. If this was to happen again in the future there
is a good chance it would not be covered under warranty..."

and a follow up email after i informed him that pretty much every one of the thousands of bear hunters in wisconsin use marine radios in thier trucks while hunting:

" I have passed this information on to my Supervisor and he'll forward it on to the Engineering team. However, I can't guarantee what changes may occur if any but we certainly appreciate your feedback as this helps us develop products that our customers need/want.

If you keep the two antenna's at least 5 feet apart you may decrease the risk of damage to the Astro..."

[tman308]

Hey Budd Denny,

The reason you don't have a problem is that a regular GPS is not picking up radio frequencies. The ASTRO is a GPS and radio receiver.