BigGameHoundsmen.com

I only have one question, is there any truth to what I heard of Garmin buying out Wildlife Materials?

Boy oh boy i sure hope not! If they come out with a collar that has beep beep,gps,and correction capabilities all wrapped in one, that would be more than ol slowaneasy could handle. He would probably be hospitalized from dragging reasons for not owning one out of his ass that he would need stitches.

Mark, no way I would just be able to laugh louder! Because then you all would have a good shocking system, an excellent beep beep system, and the dogs would be able to carry around a GPS system that was broken half the time. But at least there would be a bright side, you would consistently be able to correct them when they do wrong and find them when they were lost. Unless their tech wizards think that their newly acquired companies need everything re-designed.

Take care, Willy

are they going to stop making the 320's and dc40's then

Seriously though Willy, i know what you're saying. Its frustrating how fast things change anymore. I just got over being mad because my 8 track player wouldnt play cd's. I guess i have had better luck with the garmin collars than some have, outside of the 2 dc 40's, but they seem to work better since Buddy updated them. I have the new system and some collars on order. I will use them along side the 220,320, and dc 30 and 40 and be able to give you an honest and unbiased opinion on them (for the country i use them in.) As you know i hunt 8-10 dogs and run 3 collars on each of them. I've tried combining gps,beep beeps,and shockers but dont like the way they hang on a dogs neck. So anyone coming out with a combination of the 2 or 3 all in one im gunna give it a whirl.

Mark,

I know exactly where you are coming from. Like I have said I own a 320 and a DC 40 collar, and totally enjoy it. And will probably always have one as I feel they are a viable training tool. However I will probably continue to throw Garmin under the bus until there is no longer a need for a Garmin help topic on this form. In other words until they get it right. Right now all one has to do is pick up one of their collars. Than pick up a Wildlife materials, Johnson, Marshall, or try Tronics collar. And tell me if you can feel the difference in quality workmanship and care. If they do get it right I will be one of the first to pat them on the back and give them an attaboy. However I don't believe that I will hold my breath because I don't believe that they truly have the houndsmen at heart. And when someone else puts the pieces of the puzzle together correctly. I believe you will hear a huge sucking sound, which will be the vacuum sound of Garman losing all of their customers. Which at that time they no longer will have to try and figure out creative ways to con people out of their money. Because everyone will have left.

Good shooting the bologna, Willy


P. S.: Lawdawg who the hell knows what they're going to do, I don't even believe they know.

Willy, you hit the nail on the head there buddy. Could not have said it any better myself. Amen , Amen , Amen

I'll try and explain the reason that these devices are not compatible. Probably a waste of my time. However When you look at the technical side of things, there was not much choice to make an Expanded system while keeping the Compatibility the same.

It's a matter of how the data is transmitted through the Air to your handheld. there are allot of different ways to get a faster signal (More dogs), but they are all not compatible.

With the Astro you shouldn't think of the numbers as a Number 21.. Think of the number as two separate digits, For example 2 and 1. The First Digit of the Astro is the Frequency, the second is the channel. So ID number 11 is actually Frequency 1 channel 1.

Now fast forward to the ALPHA, You have twenty different Channels (Double the collars), but still 5 frequency's. Instead of having 119, (which would be Frequency 1 Channel 19) it was best that they did it differently than the ASTRO so not to confuse anyone into thinking 19 would work with an ASTRO collar 19. So you will see 1-19. Which means Frequency 1 Channel 19.

Although It would appear that the First 10 channels could be used the same however that is simply not the Case, The Two Units use a different Method (if you know what a Baud rate is, if not think Different Language) They have to do this so they don't mess each other up while hunting.

If some one was hunting with the Astro Collar while you used an Alpha collar, it would confuse the both of them and No One would be able to track anything. So Garmin had to do something to fix this, so folks were able to use an Astro next to an Alpha without causing a bunch of problems.

In order to track more dogs, The way Garmin did this was is to (somewhat) send the data Twice as fast as the Previous astro system, This way they could track twice as many dogs. Unfortunately when they do it this way there is no way to Track the slower ASTRO collars since they are not using the faster setting, It would get very complicated to try and figure out what collars to track.

Also It is a bit more complicated than this, but for the purpose of not getting into the weeds I've tried to keep it with simple explainations, However with the Training Portion of the System it adds some more complications to compatibility, however It could take quite a bit of Discussion and reasons and explaining All pointing to the reasons and the fact that the alpha is not compatible and It would be "EXTREMELY" difficult to make it compatible.

In the end, once you fully understand the technical problems, and the Large picture The Choice for Garmin was Either "NOT" Build a New system and continue with all the complaints about the ASTRO, or Build a new system that was not compatible. This allows you your choice, If you want compatible you'll have to stick with the ASTRO. If you want the Expanded version, and can accept the Non Compatibility then you'll move to the Alpha.

I have 14 years in The technical side, Sometime I take this information for granted when I look at something. I can see how folks that don't understand how computers and Technical things work would have a hard time accepting this.

If you have a better solution for Garmin, I'm sure they would love to hear it, And I would love to discuss it, I've got an idea to do it, but It's more expensive and Would not be compatible at all with Garmin, So my solution is really no better than The Alpha, In fact the Alpha is a better solution than what I could likely come up with.

In the Long Run, and in the Big Picture with all the information available, This was the right choice for Garmin to do. When they asked me about non-compatibility, I told them Better to do it sooner than later, and not discontinue the Astro.

In fact this was one of the only choices that Garmin had to expand and grow the Dog Tracking line.

To compare their devices to a telemetry collar with 10 simple components show's what Garmin is up against. I will hold Garmin Accountable when they mess up, (Like the DC40's, that was something that I could offer a solution for)

If I don't have a solution to offer, I normally try not to be a critic. I was much like you guys, until Garmin Asked me what Would I do. Then I had to sit down and think about it, so now I like to Think of what "I would Do" and that quickly brings things back to reality for me.

Now with that said, I'm sure Garmin will read this,.. so Please bring back the DC30's for the ASTRO! I still don't like the DC40s

Just my 2 cents.

Good post! Thanks Buddy

John

I'm not against Garmin doing technological advancements in their tracking units ,my concern is that they will still make repairs on the older units that are still out there such as the dc 30 models /220 .

Buddy, That was a very good post. Almost as simple as one could really put it, and still have some technical info in it. You may be right on it being a waste of time. But hey, we at least got to try to help right!

Can't wait until you and I can get these units in our hands . So we can have some of our witty banter with each other discussing the finer points of the system.

Grouse- I highly doubt Garmin is going to stop repairing the old units anytime soon. But you really can't expect them to continue to make parts, and do this forever. At some point they will have to say enough is enough. One has to be reasonable on this.

Steve, I would not only expect Garmin to continue to make repairs but with the number of units that they have sold 220/320 I would certainly hope that they continue to sell at least the DC 40s for a long time.

I expect the Astro line to continue as if the ALPHA product was never released.

This Alpha isn't taking over the ASTRO products, It's an entirely different Product. I probably wouldn't be surprised if next year there was an Update for the Astro instead of the Alpha.. If Garmin Discontinued the ASTRO, it would definitely be a huge Black eye for them and would open themselves up to competition.

I think it will take some getting used to for some but this is just like the Oregon GPS, and the Map62 GPS, they are two products with two separate features, Just because they brought in a new product doesn't mean the Old one is going away.

You just need to pick which system you want to use and then use that system, The only downside is that if you want the ALPHA, you have to sell your ASTRO stuff.

I'll post some videos when I can get them made up about the ALPHA, I think the Shocking part is actually going to be really nice and will be much better than the Classic 70 or Trash breakers..

Thanks Buddy, thats reassuring. Its one thing when you decide to go with a different syestem.
But when the whole group, for instance coyote hunters have all bought the astro to follow the hunt, many don't have hounds, it would be a hard sell to say OK now lets switch to another system.

I'm also glad to here that !