Garmin Astro Burned up by VHF Marine Radio

[blackpaws]

Long story short I have been useing my raido on only 5 watts of power and that should keep me in the clear.

i would still be careful because when i was cat hunting this year and had my astro and handheld side by side in my bibs, every 5 seconds when the astro would update, my radio would suelch. the astro is 2 watts and if your radio is on 5 watts it could still burn it out just not as fast. not sure if that's true but that is what garmin told me. they recommended having the handheld on one hip and the astro on the other. basically what it sounds like is to try not to use them around vhf radios. i will be using my handheld but will have it set on 1 watt.

[not color blind]

Not trying to be a smart ass but are some of you guys leaving your Astro on the whole time your hunting? What happend to getting out of the truck and listening too/for the race. I just got the garmin with 2 collars, I already have to worry about frying my 151 frequency tracking box while talking on the truck radio so it won't be a big deal for me. I'm used to having to have my beep beep box off when talking on the truck radio.

I think the garmin is going to be a GREAT thing for picking up lost/behind dogs. I surely am not going to be sitting in the truck looking at that little screen when a good chase is going on. If they're out of hearing and I don't know where they're at, I'll turn it on, hopefully see where there at, turn it off and go where I can here them again.



I've been testing trying to get the best range out of mine. I have a high gain 14" antenna that goes right on the Astro that gets you a little better range, the regular marine truck antenna gets better than the 14", the best range I have gotten is hooked up to my 151 tracking box antenna. I got 6+ miles through pretty thick stuff with a decent sized mound or two in between. I'll put it to real use on the first when our training season starts.

[blackpaws]

i agree on the sitting in the truck and watching the screen thing but it's just nice not to have to turn it off because it takes longer for it to pick up the collar. also, it's nice to see when they are getting closer to roads while you are in the truck moving.

[PAUL STROMBECK]

BETWEEN MYSELF AND 3 OR 4 OTHERS I HUNT WITH WE HAVE BURNED OUT 10 UNITS SINCE THE 1ST OF THE YEAR, SEEMS LIKE THEY START OUT TRACKING VERY WELL LIKE 2 AND 3 MILES AND THEY SEEM TO JUST GET WORSE AND WORSE SOME WE HAVE USED WITH RADIOS AND SOME WERE NOT EXPOSED TO RADIOS MAYBE WE ARE DOING SOMTHING WRONG AS FAR AS STARTING A NEW HUNT OR MYSELF I RESET THE TRIOP COMPUTER,THAT HAS WORKED WELL FOR ME. IM NOT CONVINCED ITS THE RADIOS BLOWING THEM OUT, ANYONNE ELSE HAVE ANY ADVICE OR EXPERIENCES TO FIGURE THIS OUT, I DONT THINK GARMIN HAS A CLUE WHAT THE PROBLEM IS AT LEAST THE PEOPLE WE HAVE TALKED TO THANKS, PAUL

[Big Bad Blue Dog]

BETWEEN MYSELF AND 3 OR 4 OTHERS I HUNT WITH WE HAVE BURNED OUT 10 UNITS SINCE THE 1ST OF THE YEAR, SEEMS LIKE THEY START OUT TRACKING VERY WELL LIKE 2 AND 3 MILES AND THEY SEEM TO JUST GET WORSE AND WORSE SOME WE HAVE USED WITH RADIOS AND SOME WERE NOT EXPOSED TO RADIOS MAYBE WE ARE DOING SOMTHING WRONG AS FAR AS STARTING A NEW HUNT OR MYSELF I RESET THE TRIOP COMPUTER,THAT HAS WORKED WELL FOR ME. IM NOT CONVINCED ITS THE RADIOS BLOWING THEM OUT, ANYONNE ELSE HAVE ANY ADVICE OR EXPERIENCES TO FIGURE THIS OUT, I DONT THINK GARMIN HAS A CLUE WHAT THE PROBLEM IS AT LEAST THE PEOPLE WE HAVE TALKED TO THANKS, PAUL

Yea Paul you are right i don't think that it's just the radios burning them out either. I have seen some go out with no radio exposure and some not go out that has been around a very high wattage output for more than a year. i think they have several problems that they don't know what is going on, nor do the hunters either.

[Jason Waterhouse]

Well ive had my astro about 3 weeks now and it has stopped working.It will only pic dogs up about a 100 yards away thats it. I have been using my vhf radio only on 5 watts.I did forget a couple of times and keyed it on high power when astro was on but just 2 times. So anyways called garmin and the tech on the phone told me 5 watts or less should be fine anything more will hurt the garmin. So anyways its on its way back to be looked at.

[wpalczynski]

Do you guys know if a cell phone signal booster in the truck will fry the Alphas too?

The booster in question is:
https://store.weboost.com/products/connect-4gx

[tman308]

The cell booster doesn't affect the astro.

[Lee Wolford]

I too learned the hard way, lost a lot of collars from my VHF radio while transmitting on 25 watts. We still use the VHF radios all the time, NO MORE THAN 5 WATTS!!!! I have been running my VHF on 5 watts with my Alpha and collars for 2 years now with zero problems. Most VHF radios have a low power setting, usually 1 watt. I use the Yaesu 2900 VHF on low (5 watts) when we're hunting with collars on.

[mrburneisen]

I doubt anyone can solve the problem with high powered radios frying receivers. If you're sitting in a truck stop 20 yards from another guy who turns on his CB pushing 100+ watts through a linear amplifier it'll fry the receiver in your radio. This is the same thing going on with the garmin/beep beep receivers.

I run a stock CB radio 4 watts with my garmin astro 320 and T5 collars with no problems. I also have had no problems with my radio telemetry tracking systems in the 216.000 range. I have used it that way for 2 years now, and have not had any issues. We use cobra mobile radios and uniden hand helds to talk from mountaintop to truck, and to communicate between vehicles. Yes, I am limited on my range with stock 4 watts on CB, but I hunt in the mountains of Western NC, so I have range issues due to the mountains anyway. The only solution is for the user to turn off the receiver to prevent damage, or keep it to low powered radios (under 5 watts).

[Rustyshaklferd]

I see this post is old...........do they still have problems with this?

[Hound man]

Yes
Stay off channels in the 151 range and turn your radio down to 5 watts .
We run down in the 145 s and have no issues