UPDATE:
I have not had the opportunity to really put the new antenna to a test, other than a few hunt where the dogs did not range out very far.
A week ago, hunting near the Trinity river, north of Madisonville, the dogs were continually crossing a creek at 2.25 miles. The collar would drop while they were crossing, but would pick back up once they were on the other side. At one point, I did lose signal for a couple minutes while they were near the creek. Not sure if they were in the water, or if the system had trouble picking them back up for some other reason. On that hunt, 2.25 miles was the farthest that I ever got from the dogs...
Last Sunday, I hunted in some open country in Fort Bend county. Dropped the dogs at a little under a mile with just the handheld. Plugged in the new antenna, and picked them up right away, and never dropped them again for the rest of the hunt. The furthest that they bayed that day was ~1 mile out, so once again, I did not get to put the antenna to the test.
This is not a good photo, but its the best on I have of the antenna. Just a magnetic mount, with a ~40 whip.
Hopefully I will be able to report back with some better info in the coming weeks. If I take the dogs out west, I feel confident that they will range out several miles and I can see if the new antenna will work better in a real world situation.
