Sounds like a smiliar system TRACKER has had out for a few years now overseas.

Here is TRACKER'S GPS system:
http://www.tracker.fi/DowebEasyCMS/?Page=huntinggpsEN

Here is 2 other Overseas GPS systems:

http://www.pointersolutions.com/eng/index.html

http://www.environmental-studies.de/pro ... ducts.html

The USA is a few years behind in the GPS Tracking Systems as they have been used overseas for several years now.

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Dang It.......I screwed up in the previous posts.....the "new system" is called the Hear Now. I got the wrong product name....sorry for any confusion ( I deal with alot of different companies for computers and electronics at my job, so I do it quite frequently LOL and no I don't receive any rewards from any of them).

Thanks for the links Buckshot, I will checks them out.

Here's the link to the company's website if anyone is interested in checking it out for themselves:

www.thehearnow.com

greggf

We were hunting with a friend who has one this weekend. Dogs got about 1.5miles out and it had trouble getting signal here and there but we were hunting in pretty rough hilly country. The collars are kind of a cheap nylon and they have a counter weight on them to keep the antena on top of the dogs neck. Something I think they need to work on. Need to make it more like the older collars. Battery life is ok on the collars and would last us about 2 good long hunting nights. Nice thing is that they are rechargeable with a plug in charger or car cigarette lighter. Then the gps just takes AAA. Also need to know if the collars will pick up underground. Had dogs get into tiles in our wood lots and only way to figure out where they went is the radio trackers. If the gps doesn't pick them up not worth having one around here as it's happend about 3 times. Just letting you all know what I know about this system.

The tracking system works of radio signal just like any other track systemthen it dispays it on gps screen. If a dog goes in a tile it will show the last place his signal was located. I turned my old dog and my pup loose last night in hill country they b lined and were 1.3 miles in a short time and lost signal. we jumped in the truck and drove trails following the line the dogs took, we poped up over a big hill and it caght signal and showed treed 75 yds. of gravel road with the meat. I would probably still be out looking for these 2. That is the best insurance a man can buy on some expensive dogs. I had a guy with me that was a old coonhunter that was totaly amazed. One thing I have had trouble with is constantly changing AA bateries on reciever.

Are the collars matched to the recievers or will the recievers pick up another hunters dogs that is using the same kind of system?

They are linked together when you first turn them on. You hold the collar near the gps handheld until the light on the collar does a double flash (the collar has a flashing red light on all the time). Once the gps has picked up the collar the light will flash twice a second instead of once a second when first turned on. So your system wouldn't pick up any other collars of the same kind unless you set them all together when you first turn the collars on. And once you pick up the collars on the gps you can turn it on and off and it will still track until the collars are shut off.

You'll have to pick the collars up on the gps like this every time the collars are shut off. So when you're done for the night and you shut the collar off the gps wouldn't read it until you picked it up again.

anybody using the low profile antena and how well does it pick up versus the regular size?

I am going to try the stubbies next week in Virgina. I will let you know what I find out.

thanks

for the most part the unit worded pretty well in VA. had some places that it did not do too good, but had no trouble finding the dogs. I would still use the beep beep as a back up.

i use garmin astro in sc i dont like vest went though a bunch of factory antennas but i got the stub antennas for the dc-20 works alot better. i really llike .i suggest it .

I was talking to Mike Kelley about three months ago and we began disscussing the Astro cause he said he just got one. He said it is very neat in because you can virtually see every step your dog made. But he also said there are some serious design flaws in the collar set up or the harness setup. The antenna on the collar is very prone to wear and tear. he said a helpful tip is to put one of the heavy duty vinly reflectors on it to give it some protection.
The thing that scares me is Garmin advertises 5 mile line of site! I hope you all know what that means about 2 miles max in normal hunting conditions. Yes gps's are battery hogs also and 20 hour collar life is not to insuring either. What if your dog gets in a cave or under a rock cliff? Or worse yet some thief puts him in a shed or his basement? I don't understand why the Astro can't have unlimited range. I mean you are using satelites why can't I track my dog from PA to Australia? Shouldn't it pick up signal anywhere? Or better yet if you lose satelite connection they should be able to switch over to conventional telemetry locating.
I do think it is great you can where your dog has been and see if he is heading towards danger like a road but I feel that cons outweigh the pros. Just because you can locate a dog in 20 hours doesn't always mean you can catch him right then either.
Actually ATS has had a Gps unit out since 2000 for wildlife monitoring but I bet you could get one for hounds from them also and I would not be afraid to say ATS is better than Garmin.

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Hey Brandon, ATS's collars looked good and it seemed like they could have a hound system togther in a few months if they wanted to. You would still have the same issues- the more you check the location the less battery life you'll get.
We've got several Garmin units now and they have been working great for us. Of course I believe they will totally revamp thier collars in the near future, but beside that thier GPS unit is top of the line and we've haven't needed to use telemetry collar on any hound we've had the GPS collar on yet. Antenna's are holding up well and were making metal templates for the bases which are plastic and crack. I'll be curious to see prices from other companies when they finally come out with thier own. They'll be hard pressed to match the garmin units in terms of cost though. Right now I have a Radio, shocking unit, telemetry unit, plain old GPS unit (for myself) and cell phone. Times sure have changed from when I was a kid. When the only thing we took into the woods was greatest technology we took with us was the unbreakable thermos and sterno stove!!! Paul Conway.

I got my garmin and hunted the last to nites and love it best money I ever spent .

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