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Astro or alpha ?
Posted: Wed Apr 02, 2014 7:40 pm
by treetalkingjp
I know this has probably been talked about 7000 times but I currently have a astro 320 and 3 collars but I'm looking either to trade up to a alpha or wait to another system comes out .
My astro and 2 dc40s and 1 dc50 plus 100 gets me a alpha and a collar . Any suggestions on waiting or trading up .
Re: Astro or alpha ?
Posted: Thu Apr 03, 2014 2:05 am
by Dads dogboy
That is a NO Brainer.....Trade! All you are really trading is the 320 and the DC 50 as the dc 40s are no longer being supported by Garmin. So trading for only 100 boot is a Heck of a Deal.
Re: Astro or alpha ?
Posted: Thu Apr 03, 2014 1:07 pm
by Jeff Eberle
Plus $600 more for two more collars. I'd wait, Me and a bubby stood side by side with are dogs treed 1.6 miles away both astro and alpha would go in and out but his astro was in away more then my alpha. Yes their is a lot more you can do with the alpha, If I'd owned a astro and traded it in and then had that happen plus the extra money to boot

Re: Astro or alpha ?
Posted: Thu Apr 03, 2014 1:35 pm
by RezDogRendezvous
I liked my astro and trashbreaker over the alpha! I dont have the patience for the annoying touch screen and having to flip through the dogs to find the ones i want to light up when correcting one. Also it seems to find random pages, delete tracks, and change things on its own way more than the astro (because the touch), while bouncing around between my floor and pocket. Unless your materialistic like me I would wait. And especially if your short tempered like some people may be!
Re: Astro or alpha ?
Posted: Thu Apr 03, 2014 3:34 pm
by treetalkingjp
Looks like I'll be trading up thanks for the advice ! I didn't know about trading up at first to I seen how much collars was for a alpha then I realized the guy giving me the deal is being honest . Guess I'll own a alpha here soon thanks
Re: Astro or alpha ?
Posted: Thu Apr 03, 2014 3:38 pm
by bowtech36
I like my alpha a lot, I only hunt two three dogs so flipping through dog isn't a problem for me. Every body in nv I hunt with owns 320 and dc 30s my system loses dogs less. I Like having everythIng on one handheld a well. I was also buying my first gps and didn't want to buy a new Garmin system and new shock so I felt it better to go with alpha. In your case if you already have both systems then you may not want to trade. Because like Jeff said another 600 before your back to three collars.
Re: Astro or alpha ?
Posted: Thu Apr 03, 2014 3:44 pm
by treetalkingjp
Yeah that's true about 600 but atleast I knocked off 800 of it lol . I like my astro don't get me wrong but I also don't have a shocker either . I've used hickories for 5 years haha . My only problem with all this is I hope they don't come out with a new one next month or year after I sink a Fourtune into this cause I have 8 dogs so I need 7 more collars so I guess 2100$ . That's my major reason is them making a new one soon
Re: Astro or alpha ?
Posted: Sat Apr 05, 2014 9:43 pm
by lynxrufus
Alpha hands down for me.Way easier to learn when you give it a chance.DC 50 are good.Having good luck with DC40 DU redid for me.But can't beat Alpha when given a chance.in the cold and in the swamps here.Are mountains are mole hills compared to the west,cant say about that
Re: Astro or alpha ?
Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2014 1:41 am
by Anderson_HOTD69
I had a 320, 4 DC-40's and a DC-30 and a Trashbreaker with 6 collars. I went to the Alpha and I will never look back. In all reality, you are not spending much more money on a collar if you get 1 Astro with the collar and a Trashbreaker with 1 collar. By the time you buy an additional GPS collar and an additional shock collar, you may as well have one.
The screen on the Alpha is WAY brighter and easier to see then the Astro. Which is nice. Tracking 20 dogs PLUS the option to track another Alpha handheld is amazing versus 10 dogs and NO handhelds on the Astro. DC-40's are the most inconsistent collar ever made, almost everyone will agree.
I could literally see my Shuttah dog with her DC-40 on and on the handheld it had no idea where she was... With the regular antenna that comes on the handhelds I was picking my Oakey at over half a mile on the Alpha
1 collar that does both, one charger, less room in the collar bag, less collars on the dogs neck, I can go on and on.
Don't get me wrong, getting rid of the Shock system my dad used was one of the hardest things I decided to do, I almost changed my mind, but after using my Alpha, I won't go back.
The whole purpose of the Telemetry and GPS collars are to be able to get to our dogs as fast as we can, my experience with the Astro and it's collars made me rely more on the Telemetry then I did it... I used the Astro more when the hounds were at home and we were looking for sheds or Javelina, ect... The purpose of the shock collars are to discipline the dogs and in some situations to retrieve them.
ALL systems have limited ranges, limited battery life, and it's pros and cons, IMO, the Alpha has more pro's then cons.
My biggest complaint of the Alpha is the fact that I can't flip the collar around so it's antenna is on the same side as my telemetry... No matter how nice the GPS stuff is, I will always rely on the Telemetry, with its 16,000 hour battery, it's hard to beat..