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Mr.pacojack wrote:Just did another test on them. 6 collars and they all lost connection at .59 line of sight the whole time. Never did pick back up. Too bad Garmin didn't work more on the distance rather than the fancy features.

Devin, something is definately wrong with your handheld. I would definately send it back. Don't know where you got it from, but they should take care of you. If they won't, let us know who it is so we don't get in the same situation. Both of mine work considerably better than that with the short rubber ducky factory antenna. The longer antenna from Smiley Antenna works way better than that. It has to be your handheld because all the collars are losing reception at the same time.

slowandeasy wrote:
Wow,

That is really scary. I was waiting for the new reports to start coming in saying that everybody was getting signal halfway around the world. And that they were shocking dogs just as far.

Very surprised we are not getting all the sales pitches from the dealers.

That's okay I know where there's at least one that we will get an honest critique on. Almost seems maybe that the ones that are out there, the one's that bought them may be to sheepishly embarrassed to let the cat out of the bag.

Just seems that way to me. Because when things are really going well most shout it from the rooftops. What's the scoop guys?

Take care, Willie

Willie, the scoop is......They work better than the Astro and wayyyyy better than tritronics. Period.

Scott

By your description Devin, I think you have an antenna issue. Send it back and have them look at it. If I get a chance, I'll do a side by side comparison and see just how they stack up with each other.

Scott, are you one of their testers? Did you buy yours? Anyone that knows me will tell you I will call a spade a spade and if they are better then I will tell you so. But as of now I would tell everyone to run from these things. And if I am wrong and their is something wrong with my Alpha I will tell you that too, and tell you how great they are.
At this time I would say Buyer Beware.

That is the thing Dean, Scott and Buddy, If a guy is spending $4000 on a system they should not have to send it back. These are things that should have been tested and proven before they ever released the system. Granted there will be problems but the price they are asking for these things there should be very few problems with them and a guy should not have to be without his system for the 2 to 3 weeks while they are looking at it.

I am very happy with my Alpha system

I posted before somewhere on here that when i first got mine i put a 30,a 40,and a100 on several dogs. All of them had the 3 different collars on at the same time. The results were the same on all the dogs, the 100s got more range than the 40s and about the same as the 30s. Sometimes i lost the 30s before the 100s and sometimes the 100s before the 30s. I havent used the correction part at a long distance but i turned a dog around with the tone at over 900 yards in heavy brush country. Im not saying they're best thing to ever hit the market but i am happy with the way mine work and i'd bet alot of money Garmin isnt going to shit can em and start producing the 30s again. The battery life on the collars at a 30 second update is what was amazing to me, im thinkn bout running without telemetry collars in country im familiar with.

I agree Devin. Seems like they've let us put the real test to all of their units. I still laugh when I see their original 20's with that silly harness. Who told them that was a good idea? Some one sitting behind a desk I'm sure!

FullCryHounds wrote:I agree Devin. Seems like they've let us put the real test to all of their units. I still laugh when I see their original 20's with that silly harness. Who told them that was a good idea? Some one sitting behind a desk I'm sure!

Yes Dean I have to agree with your post. Definitely someone sitting behind a desk. Or possibly like some of the wizards that spread their free wisdom pertaining to the hounds on this site.

Like I said in the past, I do own the 320 and DC 40 collar. And do thoroughly enjoy it. But do I consider it a truly viable tracking collar? Absolutely not, I consider it a truly excellent training tool that verifies what you hear with your ears. That also has an excellent map program.

I don't have a dog in the fight, as far as spending my hard-earned money on the new unit. But I do know human nature, and nobody likes to admit that they took it in the shorts. my own personal way of operating is I always like to tell it like it is. This way good gets promoted, and garbage ends up in the garbage can where it belongs. So if these things are that much better, let's let people know. But if they are not let's not let a fellow houndsmen piss their money away.

Take care, Willie

Called Garmin today. They told me that my Alpha and all the collars need to be updated because they have newer updates and that should make them get better distance. I am hopeful and will let you all know.
Went from a 2.20 program to 2.40 and on the collars went up to 2.50.

That's probably not the issue. I wouldn't expect that to fix your issue.

But you can try it.

Buddy

Buddy what's your take on any bad issues with the alpha thus far? I am not in the market as it stands now but I would love to get one eventually when I can say all bugs are hammered out and I can afford it. I see eventually garmin phasing out the astro, not in the near future for sure but in the long run.

Mr.pacojack wrote:Called Garmin today. They told me that my Alpha and all the collars need to be updated because they have newer updates and that should make them get better distance. I am hopeful and will let you all know.
Went from a 2.20 program to 2.40 and on the collars went up to 2.50.

Do you have to send your system in or can it be updated at home?

You can update everything right on your computer.

Unreal_tk wrote:Buddy what's your take on any bad issues with the alpha thus far? I am not in the market as it stands now but I would love to get one eventually when I can say all bugs are hammered out and I can afford it. I see eventually garmin phasing out the astro, not in the near future for sure but in the long run.

I don't think the astro will be phased out. I hope that they will come up with a rev for the dc40 collar but I'm not sure about that. My bet would be the astro line will hold it's own for a while. I think I still sale more Astro's than alpha collars, but We are selling quite a few Alpha's and so far most folks are very happy with them. I've had to swap out a couple bad units for folks that didn't work out of the box, (kind of like was PacoJack has) So I would definitely buy from a Reputable Dealer that will take care of you when you need help. The Tech guys at Garmin do not know enough about these units and normally just try to pass things off like. (Just update the collars to fix it..) Which don't work that often.


For the Alpha, We've been getting some of the Bug's hammered out I know of several that have been reported and fixed, I would definitely recommend updating it and the collars, but not because of Range problems, I would do it for the software glitches that have been fixed.

A couple we have found were issues like more than 15 dogs were filling up the memory, but that issue is fixed in the 2.4 rev. I've seen one other issue with the collar software that shows a dog 88 miles off for a few seconds. I think that issue is squared out now, it's a difficult one to fix because I've only experienced it once for about 5 seconds. Out of all the units I've sold there is only one other customer that has seen the same thing and he was hunting the same area I was so I don't know if it has something to do with the Area.

There were a couple lock up issues if you hit certain menu options in a certain order.

The one issue that I would be the softest on is the Tree Switch and how it works/Doesn't work. Sometimes they go off too much, and then when you do get a tree it doesn't show the tree. I think they are still working on that one some, but that would be my biggest Beef is the way they are indicating the Tree. Hopefully they can get it dialed in better.

Other than that they have been really good, Contrary to what PacoJack is saying, we've had Good Range, I'm skeptical to say better than the Astro's but I"m pretty reserved when I make any claims about tracking ranges and distances because every area and situation is different.


But I've tracked my friends dogs a 10 miles, and My friends alpha at 22 miles using the Truck VHF antenna's (Of coarse we are up high and they were down a canyon, so I'm not saying they track consistently at 22 miles.)

The shocking works good

Buddy, I promise if you were getting that kind of range, you wouldnt be on here trying to defend and sell these Garmins, you would be too damn busy selling the shit out of them and not worried a bit what people were saying.