Unbelievable New GPS Systems Avb

[Majestic Tree Hound]

This is a link to the GPS/Radio Transmitter Please Read about their Unit and they have allready made them for Fox Hounds and Wildlife ..
When Making these you will need the "GPS x Radio Transmitter", a "Handheld Ham Radio Reciever", "Decoder" (from radio output to Digital ) and eather a Smart Phone (No Service is Required) or you can use a Simple small PDA, And Free Software .. With these Items You can have the Top of the Line GPS Tracking System that would make the Garmin look like a Mickey Mouse TOY !!



Now when hooked up with a Pocket PC it will give you all the data that the Garmin uses plus with Satilite Image location ..



Now Imagin looking at your Smart phone or a Pocket PC and seeing a Yellow line stright to your hound on a Satilite Image..
also add a Standard Micro Transmitter with 30+ miles of Range by adding this to the Collar as a Back-up Beep Beep System .

http://www.davidsonsfalconry.com/transmitters.html

1/3N FMV $95.00
8 grams w/batteries
Uses a single 1/3N Lithium Battery
45 Days Plus Operating Life!
30 Miles Range L.O.S.
Same Freq's as listed above for FMV
Battery Included

Well I can tell you this If I had around $1000 at the Moment and What I have learned whats avb. on the Web in Parts and Free Software .. I could build my Own Top of the line Tracking Unit with a Smart phone or 8-1/2" Tablet PDA .. Everything is Avb. !!!!

And I'am sure I could buy the GPS x Radio Telemetry Unit (Collar) Cheaper then $295 if I were Buying more than one at a time..

But Yes this System to give you 20 miles LOS operation would require you to Take the Tech. Ham Radio Test that is 35 Question long and No Morris Code test.

Additional Collars would be about $250 to $275 ea

[Nolte]

Sorry but I'm not going to get too fired up over this deal. Sure it sounds promising but I think it's a long way from being workable.

I didn't see the words "waterproof" anywhere in that link. Not only that but I saw 8 hours battery life. The 20 miles sounds great but that is line of site, unless my dogs fly there ain't no way to get that around here.

My only gripes with Garmin are range (like all collars), battery (can deal with it), durability (not super tough), and bigger display (more want than need). But the info they give you is pretty unreal in comparison to standard telemetry. I'm not going to jump ship until something comes out that is far superior for my kind of hunting, haven't seen it yet.

[Majestic Tree Hound]

[doghunter]

not sure how you get the signl from the collar to your had held devise. is it radio waves? if so what frec and from where

[doghunter]

ok i read the link. it looks like a different frec then garmin so it may stop the frying problem

[Majestic Tree Hound]

This Radio recieves the GPS Data from the "Collar" and also has its position In GPS cords. ..

and you connect this Radio to a Tablet/Pocket PC with Google Maps on it and it will plot the overlay the GPS signal "Trail" on Google Map at Real time ..

This is a Hell of a Radio !!!!!!!! and I believe it will also pick up the Garmin Signal too ..
This is a Great Radio to Have all the Time anyway !! Totaly Water Proof Submerisable !!
$350 plus Shipping
*******Yaesu VX-8R http://www.universal-radio.com/catalog/ht/0008.html
I had to change the Mod. for the Water Proof

But you have to buy an Optional GPS Ant. with this Unit

This is about as Far as I have gone into the Rearch ... at the moment But it sound Very Promising !!!!! And will only get better in the 12 months ..

I found out that you can only Run Google Maps on a Remote PC without internet service and not Google Earth and I'm not sure if you could just Save the Section of your hunt area from Google Earth to a PC ..

[Majestic Tree Hound]

Ok I found a Satllite Imaging Software for a Pocked PC something like a Dell Axim X30-50 ..

Great looking Software with GPS Position overlay http://www.handster.com/product-review.php?id=4142


My God theirs some Really Neat Stuff Out Their !!!!


You know even with all the extra gadgets and Such needed .. I'l bet you anything its Prob. Cheeper than What Marshals GPS System Will Cost if they Finish it up !!

[reed]

"Limitations:

Due to the power output levels of this transmitter, proper packet reception and decoding require a FREE AND CLEAR LINE OF SIGHT between the transmitter and receiver.

The typical usage model will be to capture and decode packets as the rocket descends under 'chute. Once your rocket hits the ground (or goes behind that ridge), it's likely that you will lose the ability to receive and decode packets. (But you can still track the transmitter as if it were a standard RF beacon)."

This doesn't sound like it really competes with the Garmin. If it is not line of sight then the gps doesn't work.

[Majestic Tree Hound]

Just look at the Garmin Site it Says the same thing .. If Line of Site is Obstructed then it may not work ....

When your dealing with radio waves if anything is in the way it doesn't work properly..

Then we depend on the "Bounce" to Signal same with the standard Telemtry that we use .. Many Times I have used the Bounce of another higher Mountain to Keep up with the Hounds Signal ..

[sheimer]

This is really interesting to me. Would you do me the favor of putting it into layman's terms without any abbreviations and slang? I was perusing through some of the links and am curious about comparing them to the Garmin. Garmin claims 7 miles line of sight and these guys claim upwards of 30 miles line of sight. What wattage are these transmitters running at?

Thanks, Scott

[Steve White]

Here is a question for ya! If line of sight is 2 x the square root of the height. What is the height of the antenna needed to give you a Line of sight of 30 miles???

Line of site on the average dog collar is going to be about 2 miles.

[sheimer]

20" dog......

2 times the square root of the height.....

square root of 20 = 4.472

4.472 x 2 = 8.944" line of sight????????

I know that the line of sight has got to be some other equation......

Scott

[lifreediver]

has anyone made one of these systems yet i went on the falcon site did not see anything for dogs etc i got a old cb guy readin it tryin to make sense out of it i still dont see why both the dog and the collar are not gps connected but i swing a hammer for food

[Steve White]

Shiemer- The formula uses feet not inches!!!! So if you wanted to get real technical. Line of sight on 20" would be 2.58 miles.

LD- your post confused me as well. Using that system the dog would be gps connected. Just using the ham band of 70cm. Which also has it's limits.

I will try to make this real simple like in the past on many other threads. EVERYTHING right now uses the same general thing. That is the position of the dog is transmitted to you from the collar. ONCE MORE! FROM THE COLLAR!!!!! Does not matter what it uses for frequencies. This is still the case. So they all still use line of sight to the reciever(YOU!)! Now , yes some systems like the garmin transmit GPS info to you. Yet this is still done in the same way as with any other collar out there. There is not a single system in production for dogs that uses sattelite communication. In which case range would be world wide. Yes there are some systems out there that do this. They though, send the infor to a land based center and you pull that info up on your computer. Yes it could be a smart phone I suppose. Do a search on brutus the wolf. He carries a satellite collar, as do some sharks.

If a system is going to transmit a signal right from the dog from you. The range is going to be about the same as anything out there right now. Truthfully I could sit here and fill this board with all the different tracking systems out there that use the same principal and claim great ranges. Just like them real nice UHF radios like the motorola talkabouts that claim 22 miles of range. Some believe really believe it when they buy it, but soon find out later. Folks can certianly try to pee on my back and tell me it's raining, but I know better. Yet folks wanting more are willing to believe anything. Until someone can make full satellite tracking available to those of us that swing hammers. Range will not get any better. Features yes, but range not really!! Really if this were the case. Why do we need all these big cell towers. WHy are there big tv, radio, and EMS towers. Because line of sight with radio communications.

It's just the way the stuff works. I hope this makes more sense.

[bigredbee]

Hello Everyone, Greg Clark, from BigRedBee here. Just a few comments regarding this discussion:

From a high level, the Garmin DC30 and BeeLine GPS use very similar technologies. The biggest difference is that the Garmin uses a proprietary packet format, and requires the use of their receivers to decode the packet. Both run on ~150 Mhz, but the BeeLIne uses the amateur radio portion of the spectrum, and requires a license to operate. Garmin uses MURS frequencies

The BeeLine GPS uses "APRS" which is an open format, and supported by lots of different hardware and software vendors. What this means is that there are more choices for decoding and displaying the data.

The BeeLine GPS puts out 6-8 watts, and consists of a bare board only, and runs off of 8 volts. The Garmin puts out about 1-2 watts, and is designed into a nice case that easily attaches to your animal, and supports the GPS and transmit antenna. It runs off of 4 volts. I also have a 16 milliwatt version that runs on 433Mhz. My products are designed for High Power Rocketry.

Regarding range: I've done 24 miles w/ 16 milliwatts and 300+ miles with the 5 watt version. These are IN THE AIR WITH CLEAR LINE OF SIGHT. Of course, you'll never get this kind of range on the ground.

Want to put this on your dog? Sure, it should work great, but you'll need to provide a way to attach it you your dog. I don't have a collar mount solution, and the smallest "box" I provide is about the size of deck of cards, so it would be best suited for tucking into a "vest" if your dog is wearing one.

Questions? Feel free to email me: greg at bigredbee.com