BigGameHoundsmen.com

Dang it Willie!!!!!!!! I just spewed pepsi out my nose when i read that! Im not picking on them, i just figured since i bought my way into their R&D department that i was doing my job by giving them a heads up. Hopefuly my bosses will listen and look into it. So far thats the only problem i have ran into with the alpha's. I will continue with R&D and let you give em hell. Ha ha

Well I just sold my 320 and collars and baught the New Garmin Alpha 100 , Best of all features. As long as you have satelite signal for GPS you have a shocker whick runs off the same signal up to 9 miles depending on terrain. It was a No Brainer to purchase this system , it is going to be a long long time before and other brands can compete with garmin!!!!!!!!!!!

This Alpha has incrediable range........I got 130 miles on my dogs a month ago and again today, it went out to 98 miles.....

Buddy, mine has all the latest updates and had 5 dogs on a race today in bad country. At about 1 and 1/2 miles, the alpha all of a sudden said they were 98 miles a way. It didnt correct til about an hour later and the dogs were in a way different drainage by then. Still not showing treed either....? Gotta be collars messed up huh?

Call me, I think they just found the fix for that issue.

The compass does not work on my alpha and the range is not even close to what the 220 and a dc30 can do. Also the tree switch seems to be way to sensitive. Drives me nuts cold trailing a lion as the treed pops up every couple minutes. Have used it a week and am not impressed at all. Hopefully there is a fix for the compass or I will be wanting to return it or sell it.

Ranger,

Call Buddy or Matt at DU Supply. Let themtalk you through some fixes. It sounds to me like you may have a NEW system that has not been updated.

JMT

Has anyone found the measure distance on the alpha i dont think its there and maybe im the only one that uses it but i think its a big feature when your trying to figure out the closest place to the dogs. Im i just overlooking it?

You are just missing it is all. On the map page. Along the bottom in the middle you will see 3 bars. Tap that to bring up the menu. It will be the 7th thing on the list. between show off screen dogs and declutter map.

There is also another update out.

Declutter map is the seventh thing on mine.
1set up map
2dogs setup
3hide dog status
4hide dog dist
5hide dog names
6show offscreen dogs
7declutter map
8restore deffaults
Maybe they forgot mine. Lol

I think i found out that i do need to update to get it on my box. Ty

Im still running the old 220 but i understand that the alpha is still useing the same conection for the antenna. I feel that this is a week spot in the unit. When your constantly changing from your long range to your rubber ducky your going to wear out or tweak this connection quickly. I have had to send my 220 back two times because of the same problem. I feel this is what people are experiencing when they lose all there collars within a half of a mile. Is there a way we or garmin can come up with a better stronger antenna connection??????????

They changed it years ago when the 320 came out. Have never once seen this issue as a result with the 320. It has been pretty much bullet proof. The same thing with the Alpha. You will see this be simply taking a look at the connector.

I bought my alpha system mid december 2012. The main reason I bought this system was because of one dog. My 2.5 year old female[aka "Trashy Bastard"] I have had a few dogs over the past 20 years and they have all had there share of faults but nothing I couldn't deal with. I have never been a big fan of shock collars but I have used them a little. It always seemed like when I really needed one I never had it on the dog though. Ha!
So anyway I really like this little female of mine and I thought if I could just get her to quit chasing the trash I think she could make a nice dog. The alpha system has changed her arround completely. I went from keeping her in the box all day long, and having to keep her on a leash even for bathroom breaks to letting her run loose every time we drop the dogs. Don't get me wrong I'll still admit that she is the trashyest dog I have ever owned, but she also has more ambission and drive than any other dog I have ever owned. But this system has deffinately got her going in the right dirrection.

The system overall is awesome. It seems to have the same range as the DC30's. I like to leave it in the 2.5 second update mode and that chews up the batt. life pretty quick. I can go a good long day at that update rate but if I was in rough country where I couldn't get to my dogs real easy or unfamilliar country I think I would set it for a longer update rate just to be safe. The gps unit will also go through a batt. charge in a good days hunt. But so would my 220 unit. I think I will get an extra batt. for the handheld to keep in my backpack.
Being able to track your hunting partner is kinda handy as well. I wish you could text with it rather than just using preset messages, but hey, it can't do everything. Ha!

I have had a few issues with the unit though. One time one of my collars shut off for some reason. Finally found the dog late that night and turned the collar on and it seemed to work fine. The only thing I could think of was maybe a stick got wedged up under the collar and turned it off. Also I have had my screen lock up on me a couple of times. I turned the unit off and back on again and it worked fine. Well this is alot of writing for me so I better go.
I would say if you are going to spend the money on a tracking unit and a e-collar this is kinda a no brainer. I sure don't regret getting it. Ross

i am thinking of buying an alpha because i have been having problems with my 320. how does the tracking range compare to the 320?

With a GOOD roof antennae you will get about the same range as you will with the Astro.

Com with the collars seems to be much more consistent than with the Astro.

The TT collars come from Garmin with much better Antennae than does the DC 40. I hear that the new DC 50 will have the much better ALPHA stile Antennae.

The ALPHA is sure nice but if you are only having issues with your 320, I would get with your dealer or with Matt @ www.dusupply.com and try to get that fixed!