EAST TEXAS HOG DOGGERS FORUM

any of yall tried the alpha collars and whats your thoughts?

I just bought one last week and used it on two hunts this weekend and liked it allot. I am selling my 320 and collars now because i like the alpha so much. There are quite a few features that i really like, like being able to track your hunting buddies alpha and the rescue mode on the collars and lots of other minor things. Now i need to buy a few more collars. As far as range goes it seemed the same as the 320 but it seemed to not loose the collars as often as the 320. I really like the fact i dont have to keep up with a trash breaker remote and mess with charging the trashbreaker collars now.

I sure do appreciate it, I just ordered one with a collar this morning. My uncle has one back home in north Florida and he thanks the world of it . The place I got down here has the rio grande as a border so I don't want to swim to Mexico to get my dogs lol

I have a buddy that has one with 3 Collars and he is down to 1 right now he can't keep them working. He has talked to garmin to try to get it lined out ill see how that goes and let you no

Travis, what exactly is rescue mode and how does it work?

 I would love to get one but I dont want to pay the extra money to put a shock collar on my two bull dogs. Collar hangs from their vests anyways. If they offer a non shocking one I would be all over it.

How is the battery life compared to the 320?

The collar battery life is about the same as a dc40 until it gets down to 20% and then it automatically changes to a 2 minute update rate and will run for an additional 12 hour. As far as the hand held goes it is supposed to last 18 hours on a charge. The thing i like about the hand held is if you are hunting off a buggy you can recharge it while you r hunting, just like a cell phone. You can also buy another battery pack and keep it in your pocket if all you do is walk hunt .

Justin. The rescue mode deal i am kinda un clear on. It may just be the slowing the update rate to two minutes for an additional 12 hours??? The guy i bought my alpha from told me that if the collar shuts off after the battery goes dead you can hit rescue mode and the collar will turn on long enough to send a few locations. Supposedly they found a lost dog three days later using the rescue mode. I do NOT know for sure if that is how rescue mode works. I need to look into that.

As far as the collars having to be sent back in.... I talked to a garmin guru about all the hoopla on the web about the alpha being junk, he said allot of people do not  run the update on the hand held and collars to get them updated before they start using them. Then these people biotch about the alpha being junk.

A friend of mine just bought a new 320 and three collars last week and the thing wouldnt track over 300 yards without loosing the dogs. He brought the stuff to me and i ran the update on everything for him. He hunted yesterday and said he was getting the dogs at a mile plus. I am a firm believer that the updates need done when available.

Travis, thanks for the clarification, sounds like it should be a great upgrade. I like the rescue mode option.........I think it would have saved ol bullet the CD from 9 days of what I can only imagine was hell in full cut gear in the Texas july heat last year. Thanks for fillin us in!

just got the aplha system this morning , lets see how she does this weekend. thanks guys on your input

so you ended up getting it. Let me know how it does, im curious how long the battery lasts

well fellas no complaints yet. used it all weekend and seems to be very user friendly and works great. thanks for the input. daniel go ahead and get it

Update: i am loving mine so far... I hunted with an old hog hunter that had just bought a brand new astro and three dc40's this weekend. His astro kept loosing communication with two of his dogs that were running with mine. The astro dropped his dogs at 800 or so yards and my alpha had my dog steady out to a mile before it dropped off. My system would pic the dog back up real quick and we would have to get within 600-700 yards of his dogs before his would pick back up. I watched this happen all day long.

Any idea if they will offer a non shock tracking collar ?

They told me they don't plan on it. But I bet they do with so many people asking for it. I told em most people don't need a shock collar on a catch dog or a good finished dog so they're loosing out on a lot of business.

Thinking I might make the plunge. My question is how strong is the shock collar. Is it like the old trashbreakers tuat would really light up a stubborn dog, or is it more like a cheaper brand like innotek....that won't phase a mule headed son of a gun.aka my blackmouths that,are supposed to be baying cows but instead are a mile over yonder baying a pig.

man i know it will knock my dogo and the curs i got on track i

I've been using the alpha now for a while. The shock collar works nicely. Well done. I do have trouble with loading dogs around 700 yards and I have to get back within 400 yards or so to pick them back up. I probably need to run a update but my computers so old it wont let me do it. To me the handheld and collars do eat a lot of battery. But overall a nice unit.

hogdog05 be sure when ya try the update to do it off a pc and not a mac computer. man i was ready to ship the thing back after updating about 10 times and to no avail, called them up at garmin and they told me to try it on a pc . worked first time only took about 2 mins

Will the dc 40's not link up with the alpha? For the non shock collar.

Nope sure wont