Astro 220 and collars overlaping (interference)

[bluedogs249]

I have been telling Garmin, for about 4 months, that this would happen.
I have been talking to some fellow hunters in my area and it seems that there are about 40-47 collars purchased already in the area I hunt, about 7 square miles.
It's not even training season yet.
Some other people have expressed interest in buying this system and I know there will be interference from collars.
Now Garmin what are you going to do when all these people start calling and complaining about the interference.
Remember Garmin, I warned you !!!!!!!!!!!!

[Jeff Shaw NM]

bluedogs, i'm curious if you or anyone else has had this problem yet, and what the outcome was (what did 220 track do)???

It's gonna be a problem (real soon)... For instance: I have 6 collars & Tom White has 6 collars total (12 collars) we hunt close to each other, or together a lot so we set ours up to not interfere,,, but chances are probably 95% that if only 1 outside collar comes in to be read by just our (2 systems) it's gonna interfere with (1 or more of our 12 collars)... THE PROBLEM IS NOW...

We are going to set ours up to interfere, just to see what the results are. Has anybody done this yet??

[Plotts]

Have had the problem several times. Your 220 will tell you that another collar is on the same ID as "Dog1". It will ask if you want to continue tracking Dog 1. If you say yes, it will change your dog ID. If you say no, it will drop your collar.

My buddies and I have self assigned ourselves a frequency range so we dont bump each other. But there are only 50 channels so in some of the intense areas it will get interesting when there are guys out there who you dont know.

Not yet weened from telemetry, but they'll still pack a Garmin.

Garmin needs to upgrade to more frequecies if possible.

[tman308]

The only way they will get more frequencies is if they buy some licenses for the different business bands. Right now they operate on a "Free" band width.

[bluedogs249]

Garmin's Answer

I don't want to tell anyone what to do about the Astro 220 systems, but one should be careful about purchasing these units as There Will Be A Collar interference soomer or later and Garmin intends to do nothing about it.
They, Garmin, say their hands are tied because the FCC sets frequency numbers and there are no more available!!
Maybe Garmin should have thought of this sooner!!
I don't know why they didn't use the same frequency #s that we use with our other tracking systems.
I have told them that this would happen !!
I could paste a copy of the e mails that I have received from Garmin, but what's the point!!!!!!

[bluedogs249]

I just got off the phone with Garmin tech support.
What a great bunch of people.
They, tech support, are aware of the interference problem and unfortunately only engineering can do something about it !!!!!!

[Nolte]

I guess I don't see the major problem on this. It's not a whole lot different than two tracking collars having the same frequency. Yes it can be a hassle, but it's not the end of the world. You find one dog, it's not yours, shut it down and find the other. Or with the Garmins, switch over to a new frequency and then switch back after the hunt is done and you're in a new area.

From what I understand, the maxed out amount of numbers is around 50. I could only get a max of 1.5 miles on my system last summer before it finally quit working. It was pretty darn slick when it worked. I've heard other guys have had a lot better luck with them as far as durability/distance. But, If there are 50 dogs collared up within a 2 miles of you in each direction, not being able to find your dog is just one of a few different problems.

Worst case scenario a guy listens a little harder or pulls out the old beep box. I've gotten by pretty well with that system and a lot of guys have done well with even less.