BigGameHoundsmen.com

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Thought I'd get a Garmin Astro 220 review thread going......



Well, I received the Astro 220, DC 30 and long range antennae from Lion Country yesterday. I was able to get it out today for an initial "test" in my neck of the woods [ steep, rugged, wet pacific north west coast ].

Garmin recommends that the gps compass be "calibrated" before each use, so I did this. Also, I have the WAAS feature "enabled" on the gps.

I chose to take the DC 30 to a local area where I hunt, which is open rock shelves, heavily timbered slopes with trees from pecker-pole size up to fir trees with 4 ft dia. butts. Lots of creeks and ravines. Altitude; 200-600 meter high hills [ I start at near sea level ] and higher. No meadows here......

I placed the collar in a "bowl" about 40 yards across , with mature trees nearby, a typical place my dogs would be........ Then I hiked back to the road and went for a drive following a river canyon, again, country typical of what I hunt. At aprox 1.5 kms I lost one bar of "communication" between the GPS and the DC30, at 2kms I lost another bar [ there are 5 bars ] and shortly after that I lost communication with the collar.

On with the longrange antennae........and back up to 5 bars of "communication" with the collar. At 4 kms away, I was again in and out of 4-5 bars, at 5 kms it went in and out of 3-5 bars, and at six kms it went down to 2 bars and shortly after reaching the two-bar level, communication was lost.

It prolly would have regained communication if I drove a little here and there, perhaps to a higher elevation, and in a hunting situation I would have done so, but for the initial test I didn't drive further.

That was 6 kms as a crow flies.........
In that 6 kms, there were hills 200M or so in height in the way, also the whole area is heavily timbered.
Overcast and rainy day.
The collar was placed at 100m elevation and the driving I did was between 20-30 m in elevation.

I also brough a Marshall collar with me to do a side-side comparison between the two [ with a Wildlife TRX 10 and mini yagi ] but, I found the receiver to have been fully discharged when I went to try it. I guess that's what you get.......dead batteries when you leave the unit on!

In a past test in *similar* terrain nearby, with the marshall and the TRX 10 / mini yagi, I was able to recieve a faint signal at the 1 km mark.....not too impressive..... I haven't compared the 3 element yagi with the mini yagi yet for range.

So if my dogs get 6 kms away from me [ where I hunt ] I'll be looking at more than a few hours to bush-bash and climb that distance.

Maybe my potlickers would just give-up the chase at the 6 km mark?? and come back? lol.

I'd be interested in hearing other users of the Astro report's / test results and opinions. More testing to come......
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From my personal experience with the Garmin, it is the greatest piece of equipment that a hound hunter could purchase, next to the head lamp. I have tested mine up to two miles then lost signal, but if you are paying attention to it, you can drive two miles in the right direction and have signal again. I would have lost my hound in a cave and taken the long road back several times if it wasn't for it. Compared to the Tracker Maxima that my buddy has, I wouldn't even waste my time on a Tracker. The signal tells you direction and distance, and you never have to worry about interference from a building, radio or cell tower.

Just lost my whip antenna I had on the DC20 collar this morning.

I did some more Astro 220 / DC30 testing the other day. I placed the collar in a location and went for a hike this time.

I chose to do another controlled test with the collar stationary and me doing the moving.

As stated in my pervious post, I hunt / hike the coastal hills that are steep and heavily timbered, consisting of open mossy rock bluffs and ravines etc. This hike was in an area like that.

Conditons: overcast and low lying fog, 8 deg C.

I placed the collar in a location that would be typical of my dog to be in, at the base of a series of timbered bluffs starting at an elevation of sealevel. Then I began the winding hike up the hills with the collar below me and to my back.

At about the 800 meter distance and 120 m elevation, communication between the gps and the collar started diminishing and got worse as I kept hiking further away and up. The signal would be lost for a distance, then if would relocate as I went for the next 80m or so. I switched to the long range antennae and the communication went back up to "5 bars" [ the optimum level ]

I knew I could continue the hike to the intended 230m summit with the long range antennae with out losing reception, but decided to put the rubber whip antennae back on just to see if communication would restore as I continued or not........

As I continued to hike through the ravines and over smaller hills, the signal never did come back with the small antennae. The gps never lost communication with the satelites as I expected it would not, with reception being excellent.

At the summit [ the highest peak for a few miles ] 230m, I was able to get 3-4 bars communication with the small antennae in place, depending on where I stood on the plateau. As per line of sight, I was now 1.52 KM from the collar location.

I had also placed a Marshall collar beside the DC 30 for a side-by-side comparision between the two. Out from my backpack with the Wildlife TRX 10 and mini yagi, and I could faintly hear a blip in nearly 300 deg radius. It was very difficult to try to pinpont one direction being stronger [louder] than another in the 300 deg radius. The signal was so faint it wouldn't even move the needle with the blip sound. I would not have been able to ay with certanty the direction of the dog with the telemetry alone....... On the way back, I had a "decent" definitive directon at 800m from the Marshall collar with the telemetry.

When I get some snow here this winter, I'll be testing the system on the dogs, but for the time being I don't free-cast them as I've had enough trash runs already

The nice thing about the Astro is that it logs where the location was occured before losing communication with the collar, so you can at least get to that spot and get another location of the dog.

Is it worth it to buy the long range antenna. I hunt big rough mountains. I lose communication between the GPS and the dog very often but when I go over the hill it picks up quickly.

I can usually track for about a mile with the long rang antana. The sistem is worth its weight in gold when it come to picking up dogs.

kk wrote:Is it worth it to buy the long range antenna. I hunt big rough mountains. I lose communication between the GPS and the dog very often but when I go over the hill it picks up quickly.

It is to me, where I hunt.......
For 60 bucks, if it saves me losing the dogs [ and doing some ass busting hill climbing while serching ] just once it's done it's job. I hunt some roadless areas........

I am thinking of buying a Garmin but it is used and has one dc20 collar , can you still send the dc20's and $50.00 to Garmin and get a new dc30 collar .

hawgdawg wrote:I am thinking of buying a Garmin but it is used and has one dc20 collar , can you still send the dc20's and $50.00 to Garmin and get a new dc30 collar .

Its a rebate form that has to be filled out and sent in, basically you have to buy a dc30, take serial #'s of both units fill out the card and they send you the rebate. Theres no such thing as sending them a dc20 and 50 bucks and getting a dc30...... I think the rebate period ends at the end of this month.

Thanks DesertDweller for clearing that up for me .

Work great most of the time in the mountains of Virginia.

What do you guys find the battery life is on the collars? I have heard they were only like 17 hours or so...alright for coon hunting but awful sketchy for running big game.. Thoughts?

coloradoB&T wrote:What do you guys find the battery life is on the collars? I have heard they were only like 17 hours or so...alright for coon hunting but awful sketchy for running big game.. Thoughts?

You can extend the battery life to 36 hours by changing the tracking rate from 5 seconds to 10,15,or 20 seconds

I gave two fellow hounds men a collar each to try and wouldn't you know it there dogs went way back into the wilderness area and traveled 8 miles. They went after them the next day. The collar that was set on 5 second updates was dead and the one set on ten second updates was low. I think 30 second updates are the only way to go on big game. Reception was great even under the thick pine trees that were covered in 18 inches of fresh snow. Best range was just over 5 miles. We were in the Cabinet mountains in western Montana.

Does anyone know if there is an adaptor for the Astro 220 that can plug into your vehicle instead of running off the batteries? Or if they make a battery pack?