Double UPDATE - Garmin has now introduced the DC 30 dog collar + gps transmitter. It fixes many of the bugs in the old design. It uses a metal backplate behind the gps instead of plastic. The gps is black instead of orange. The antenna is longer and more flexible allowing for better range and less breakage. And since the GPS hangs DOWN by default, the new dc-30 puts a tiny GPS antenna into the dog collar itself that faces UP towards the sky. Overall it works better, in the country it adds about 2 miles to your trackign range if you are using the car mounted antenna. Those 2 miles could mean finding your dog. The new kit is sold with the DC 30 and costs about $60 more than the old model (this one) which will most likely be discontinued as my dog has broken one antenna and two plastic mounting plates. Note however that the new collar has no rings for attaching tags or leashes. This means your dog will wear 2 collars when being tracked, but gone are the days of broken parts and tracking down your GPS unit without the dog attached.
Update - I ordered the car mount antenna and found the range boost phenominal. In CITY range went from .7 miles to 1.7 miles, almost the full 2 mile rating. In Country range went over 4 miles. It is the best $25 spent plus amazon's price on the accessory is heavily discounted over garmin's. If you think you may have to use your 4WD to find your dogs, start using the external antenna accessory option from the beginning.
I got my Astro about a month ago and from the start the 2 mile range wasn't there (more like .33 miles maximum). I checked it with a pulse wattmeter from HP/agilent and it was outputting only 0.45 watts for .38 seconds, not the 2W rating (and the battery lasted alot longer than it was supposed to for some reason!). I shipped it to garmin, got it back and it was now putting out 2.2 watts. Range was still disappointing at 0.6 miles (city - granted - but my rino's do far better and they aren't digital!)
Next, I found that there are 5 channels Astro can use of which 2 of them are used by every jobcom radio in construction etc (154.57 and 154.600 are the worst and are in use all over the place) - my unit was on one of those channels which was almost always in use, so using another RF tool (spectrum analyzer) - I found a much better channel and suddenly the in city range went up to 1.5 miles which wasn't bad.
Mounting -
You get 2 mounting options - a screw bracket that will mount the transmitter to the dog collar which works really well, or a velcro pocket to put the transmitter in, strap it around the dog's breast and put a tab under the dog collar to keep it upright. I tried the vest option first and when the dog came back, the whole assembly was swinging around the dog's neck (and velcro fills up with hair if your dog sheds - the gripping effectiveness goes to zero).
The collar I thought would be better because the tags are always at the ground, but now the heavy part is up high. My guess was to put a lightweight fishing sinker in the dogtag strap which would keep it verticale - without that weight the dog comes back with the collar rotated sideways and the antenna horizontal, which hurts your range again.
Once factory adjusted to full power, put on a clean freqency, and mounted with a counterweight it works really well - 1.5 mile range in the city and 2.0 mile range or better in the country are not uncommon. I found my dog had gone on a 5 mile chase one time from the truck.
There is a problem in the few bits that garmin uses for "dog status" like "treed" or "quarry", etc - when the gps has moved a bit they are meaningless so I ignore that and leave it on the doggie detail page which tells you how far away your dog is, where it is, and the battery level/gps coverage in the dog's GPS, along with the radio signal you are getting. I would have preferred "moving" or "stable", which you can get from the map if the signal reaches.
You can get a nice VHF (marine type) antenna if you become car bound and unscrew the garmin antenna and connect the outdoor antenna which more than doubles range or better right away - great for end of the day searches for the dog. Both the dog and user antennas are SMA and removable unlike the rino which by law must have a permanently attached antenna unless you are good at soldering on external jacks yourself, which allows you big outdoor antennas and high power amplifiers on one radio. Dog transmitts at your programmed time interval, the handheld transmitts when only when you need to adjust the dog parameters, making it a 2way link temporarily on the AA batteries.
The GPS(s) in both the dog and handheld use the highly sensitve SIRF chipset (which is dirt cheap because the entire gps is in one chip, but because of the indoor usability of it garmin sees fit to charge almost 2x more e.g. the rino520HCX is also using the sirf chipset for gps, which costs them less!) - it trades sensitivity of getting a signal for accuracy compared to their old 12 channel receiver garmin made (like putting a ford engine in a corvette). Anyways they are very sensitive, the handheld allows you to load 2GB of map data on a micro-SD card like your cellphone uses so there are alot of nice features in the set, plus you can use the handheld without any dogs.) I've put highway and topographic mapping data for the western USA, along with the entire roads CD. I have GPS mapping in my car and garmin really has a poor algorythm on this one - it will insist you drive 5 miles backwards to get on the freeway, to drive 5 miles forwards to the destination 1/4 mile ahead. It's better for 4wd or marine navigation than on-road accidents. ON-Road navigation probably is a feature to avoid.
MY ONLY "STRONG" NEGATIVE is that they use 2-AA batteries in the GPS handheld. Worldwide there is a push away from disposable batteries due to price - countries like Germany and Switzerland charge more than the battery for a disposal fee - if you are caught putting them in the trash look for $500 fines. Most of europe has adopted this, hence the move to li-ion standards. I've been evaluating some 3000-3500 mah prototype AA cells in my lab from a battery company. The combination is really good - better in all cases than alkalines. I'm accustomed to the Li-ion cells on the Rino radios I use which last forever. Garmin could have fit some sort of Li-Ion pack into the battery area making it charge from both the dog charger (which is li-ion) and the dog's car-charger (included in the kit). But alas, we are stuck with kids' toys AA batteries.
The waterproofness will outlast any rainstorm and the worst weather - for both you and the dog. Overall, knowing what direction and how far my dog is is great information. I have not found any geo-fencing yet which would be nice to keep your dog out of problem areas on the map like traintracks or highways.
In summary you are getting 2 really sensitive GPS units (one rechargable and one AA powered) that communicate one way their location. To top off the system, Garmin gives you a nice hard case to seal it all up and keep the wet soggy stuff out of the dry stuff with a clever X strap holder on the outside of the case
Be sure to get it working good in the city before going on a hunt with it - you'll know what buttons shortcut to where, and what limitations are in the unit, and what the beeps decode to.
Happy Hunting!
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