Garmin astro or alpha

[cut2dchase]

Joe, NO only tone or shock.

[adirondackjoe]

thanks cut.

[steve w]

How many of you guys run a garmin astro with a e collar on same collar? I already have a trash breaker with 3 collars. I don't know if I want to just attach the e collars to the astro or try an sell collars and get the alpha. What would you do?

I run an ecollar on the same collar when needed. It works well in my opinion. I have noticed the tuff skin antenna's work better for this set up. I like having the option of not using or putting the trainer on the same collar or even it's own collar.

[matt c]

How far will the shock system work. How many miles?

[packmaster]

hands down I`d go with the alpha.way better unit.so much nicer not having to deal with putting 2 collars on.,and it also has the nite running lightd built right in.as long as you got signal on the dog you can shock or tone them.I`m getting around 1.5 to 2 miles out of my unit.only issue I had was it shut down a couple times,but once turned back on it picks them back up immediately.absolutly love it.no comparison to the astro.

[Crow]

hands down I`d go with the alpha.way better unit.so much nicer not having to deal with putting 2 collars on.,and it also has the nite running lightd built right in.as long as you got signal on the dog you can shock or tone them.I`m getting around 1.5 to 2 miles out of my unit.only issue I had was it shut down a couple times,but once turned back on it picks them back up immediately.absolutly love it.no comparison to the astro.

On the shutting down go to settings, then map, then advanced setup, then zoom options. Once in zoom options there are 4 categories. All should say "auto", if not let me know & I'll walk you through a hard reset if you want.

[dogwhisperer]

everyone keeps saying as long as you have signal? the big negative for me is around here you loose signal all the time cause it is so thick now with that being said when i lose signal on the astro i can still shock with my sport sog. so my question is those of you that have the alpha do you get better signal with the alpha or is it about the same signal with both?

[packmaster]

I only have lost signal 1 time with my alpha,and that was only for a split second.my astro handheld worked fine with the 30`s,but the 40`s were junk.got rid of the whole system,and bought the alpha,and am glad I did.Now I`m having fun again.Go with the alpha. Thanks Crow I`ll check my settings.

[Crow]

everyone keeps saying as long as you have signal? the big negative for me is around here you loose signal all the time cause it is so thick now with that being said when i lose signal on the astro i can still shock with my sport sog. so my question is those of you that have the alpha do you get better signal with the alpha or is it about the same signal with both?

Alpha easily has more range than the trashbreaker it replaced. You wanna see short range on trackers & trainers come on down. I wouldn't trade my alpha back to the TT for twice what I paid back.

[Crow]

I only have lost signal 1 time with my alpha,and that was only for a split second.my astro handheld worked fine with the 30`s,but the 40`s were junk.got rid of the whole system,and bought the alpha,and am glad I did.Now I`m having fun again.Go with the alpha. Thanks Crow I`ll check my settings.

You're welcome. Mine were set to ",,U$" instead of "auto". Garmin said they had been finding some strange things on those settings. They basically read as a corrupt file to he processor. It doesn't know what to do when it reads them and overloads its ability trying to figure it out causing the software to freeze & system to crash. Turn it back on it works a while then happens again. Me a the garmin guy were on the phone over an hour straight before we figured this out

[BCBeagles]

I just got mine back from Garmin, it did NOT shut down after a good long day afield. It would have shut down in the time frame I hunted before the replacement, so maybe it is corrected.

If they get the little kinks out the Alpha is one of the best things to ever happen to hound owners, IMO. Most valuable tool I have ever had, you wonder how you functioned without it...LOL.

[cswest]

I started running with both units on one collar I just slide the tri tronics off when I go to a field trial. Way better than strapping two collars on.

[Crow]

I just got mine back from Garmin, it did NOT shut down after a good long day afield. It would have shut down in the time frame I hunted before the replacement, so maybe it is corrected.

If they get the little kinks out the Alpha is one of the best things to ever happen to hound owners, IMO. Most valuable tool I have ever had, you wonder how you functioned without it...LOL.

BC, when you were talking to them on the phone did they ever have you check the "zoom options" on yours to see if they were all set to "auto"? I was just wondering if you corrected that and still had to send it back. When I talked to them we actually went into the programming of the hand held and deleted some files and he emailed me "clean" files to replace them and we found the "zoom options" on mine were weird so we corrected them with a "hard reset". I haven't had the chance to actually hunt with mine but I have played around a lot with it and so far so good. I'm hoping mine is fixed, just curious if they had you check that on yours before you sent it back.

Also I still have the files they sent me and I remember where all they told me to look (at least for now) so if anyone else is having problems with shutting down I can try to help if you want. I did send the collar with the corrosion back. Mailed it Friday and got an email this morning that my replacement was shipped from Garmin this morning. Not a bad turn around at all.

[matt c]

I started running with both units on one collar I just slide the tri tronics off when I go to a field trial. Way better than strapping two collars on.

Do you have it strapped on the dc 40 or dc 50?

[BCBeagles]

No, they claimed " no issue", I just told them I would not be happy unless they replaced it. We will see....