Uhunt Mag Information

• Posted By : UHUNT APP - Jesse Farr
• Posted On : Feb 05, 2020
• Views : 3236
• Likes : 1
• Category : PIG DOGGING » PRODUCT REVIEWS
• Description : Full tracker review on Garmin Alpha 100 & Dog Tra Pathfinder

Overview

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  Introduction
  I have used and tested trackers from the very first Astro 220 and DC 20 to the Alpha 100 and Tek 2, and now the Dogtra Pathfinder. It’s always hard comparing these sorts of devices as there are many variables that play an important role. At the end of the day, you can have all the bells and whistles, but if it doesn’t go the distance or lacks key features, then it’s not going to cut it out in the field. We wanted to see if the Pathfinder could keep up with the Alpha 100, not only on range but with features. Firstly the Pathfinder works by using your phone as the handset; this may not be ideal for some people as their phone could get damaged by accident when running around the bush. This is why we will also talk about a rugged smartphone we have been testing that might solve this problem. It gives hunters an affordable phone that is suitable for rough conditions at work or in the outdoors. We will cover this smartphone in detail later on, but first, let’s take a VS look at the range test we did and then move onto comparing features.

  Overview on range
  On the next page, you will find a diagram showing on google earth the path taken during the range test. The top half of the page contains all the results related to the Alpha 100, and the bottom half contains all the results from the Pathfinder. We have also marked various positions showing the elevation of key locations. This range test was done repeatedly over several days and at the same time each day to get an average and confirm results were accurate. We learnt that time of day, and other environmental conditions can greatly affect range, along with the quality of the antennas. The test was carried out on a 14km stretch on the Gympie-Woolooga road in Queensland, which is mountainous, hilly terrain with many creeks and tree lines in the line of sight. For convenience, we have included a table which is a summary of our results.

  Antennas used & test conditions
  We spent a lot of time getting different antennas made for the Garmin and Dogtra tracking systems. The frequency range is very similar on these units, which allows for some overlapping compatibility of antennas. But to achieve the best results, antennas need to be made to suit each one accurately, which is what we have done. We have a range of antennas to suit each unit for the best results possible. We would also like to thank Dogmaster for their help during the testing period; their help was integral in the end result. We performed the tests several times over three days, at the same time each day. We also performed the tests separately to rule out any interference. In the past we have confirmed that having any two collars, even of the same brand too close together will result in reduced range over long distances.

  Signal strength determination
  It’s important to note that the two devices display signal strength in different ways. The Pathfinder appears to show what I call actually signal strength where it goes up and down in real-time, accurately showing the signal strength at any given time. However, the Alpha 100 appears to base its strength on how long it has maintained a connection with the collar even if its a weak connection. We noticed quite often that we could have one very unstable bar on the Alpha, and if we held it still it would increase to five bars over time. However, as soon as the device was moved slightly it would lose connection altogether. In my eyes, this is not 5 bars; it’s one unstable bar.
  
  
  
  HOW FAR SHOULD MY TRACKERS GO? 
  People often ask us how far their trackers should go, the real answer is how long is a piece of string. Here I will explain why range varies so greatly from time to time, and location to location. Firstly you will need to understand the frequencies and how they propagate; among many things, these are integral to the distance achieved.

  What is Propagation? 
  Radio propagation is the behavior of radio waves as they travel, or are propagated, from one point to another. Different frequencies have different methods of propagation or are better at certain methods than other frequencies. As a result, some can navigate obstacles much better than others.
  
  Frequency & Wave Lengths 
  Each frequency has a wavelength, the higher the frequency, the shorter the wavelength. The lower the frequency, the longer the wavelength. This is another reason why lower frequencies can travel further. The Pathfinder has a frequency of 173MHz, and a wavelength of 1.73m; while the Alpha is 151mHz with a wavelength of 1.98m. Both units also transmit at a power output of 100mw, so theoretically range achieved should be similar on both units.
  
  
  LOW VS HIGH FREQUENCIES 
  Lower frequencies carry less energy and can transport less data, but they propagate better over long distances and are better at penetrating and navigating obstructions. The easiest example of this is many AM radio frequencies, ever wondered why you could get Christian AM radio in places you can’t get any FM radio. This is because many AM radio channels operate in the lowest end of the frequency spectrum and can use propagation methods that most other frequencies can’t. The downside is they can’t carry as much data as higher frequencies; which is why higher frequencies are used for things like phones and the internet. When it comes to trackers, companies will aim to access the lowest frequencies they can to achieve the longest range. However, they need to license these frequencies, and nearly all lower frequencies are licensed already. Not to mention these licenses are very expensive.

  
  
  VHF PROPAGATION METHODS 
  ALPHA 100 & PATHFINDER 
  
  LINE OF SIGHT - DIRECT WAVE 
  Both the Alpha 100 and Pathfinder rely heavily on line of sight as their primary mode of propagation. You can see this method demonstrated in the diagram below. But how come we can sometimes get signal when we don’t have line of sight, that’s where the next methods come in. 
  TROPOSPERIC DUCTING & BENDING 
  Certain weather conditions will produce a layer of air in the troposphere, which has less signal loss than the cooler layers above and below; creating the right conditions for ducting to occur. This creates an opportunity for frequencies in the range of 50mhz to 450MHz to use this ducting to travel further, sometimes a lot further. These ducts can be created anywhere from ground level to several hundred meters above the ground. It’s near impossible to predict but could be the answer to those experiencing significant range differences from hunt to hunt, especially in mountainous and thick terrain. This ducting usually takes place when hot days are followed by rapid cooling at night. Both the Alpha and the Pathfinder can use this method to gain more range; however, the Tek 2.0 is unlikely to use ducting to increase its range. A similar method is tropospheric bending; this occurs under similar conditions where the temperature changes in layers of the troposphere can allow the signal to bend back towards the earth to the receiver, potentially greatly increasing range. 
  
  Reflection: wave changes direction by bouncing off other objects, for example, a metal post, rocks, and possibly cliff faces; as well as conductive earth. 
  
  Refraction: wave changes direction due to variations in the air, examples are cold and hot spots where the density of the air differs. 
  
  Diffraction: wave changes direction by passing over sharply defined edges such as sharp ridges. This results in a portion of the wave bending around the edge and continuing to propagate.

  

  
  SPORADIC E PROPAGATION 
  This method bounces signals off smaller “clouds” of ionized gas in the lower E region, located at altitudes of between 90 to 160 km above the surface of the earth. These are random and unpredictable but do appear to be more common in summer. This could be one of the reasons why you may randomly pick up your collars at very long distances, then lose them and be unable to regain signal until you get within line of sight.
  
  

  MAPPING OPTIONS
  
  

  PATHFINDER 
  There are a few options on the Pathfinder, the first is what Dogtra calls normal google maps, which shows roads and towns, but it is hard to see creeks and rivers on. You can also use google terrain maps, which show a basic topo style map illustrating elevation, as well as shows creeks and rivers. However, once again, these are hard to see and only visible when zoomed in close. Then you have the google satellite mapping option which is very good showing impressive satellite image quality and accuracy, the quality appears to be even better than that of Garmins Birdseye imagery, and it’s free. The satellite option also displays creeks and rivers as lines, but these are only clear up close, this is unlikely to be an issue as the image quality is that good you can easily make out creeks in most situations. All these can be downloaded live and as needed if you have service at the time, or you can download offline versions easily within the app when you are in service. Then you can display these offline maps when your in areas with no reception. The downside of the offline versions is a google watermark appears quite frequently, which is a little annoying. There is one more mapping option called Outdoor Normal, but they are only available as offline maps, which means you need to manually download them within the app before you can display it. This option is most comparable to the Garmin Topo maps and appears to show the same level of detail. It shows very clearly creeks and rivers as well as roads and other points of interest. Unfortunately, you can only display one mapping option at a time. You can load custom maps onto the Pathfinder, but we can’t see any additional benefits to this yet over the above options. If you want to use Hema maps currently there is no way to add these to the Pathfinder app; you would need to download the Hema app separately on your phone and use it as needed.
  
  Alpha 100 
  The Australian Alpha comes pre-installed with topo maps, and their are upgrade cards that offer slightly more information, but in our experience, there is not much gain. Hema also offers maps that may show more tracks and points than other mapping options, but they do get quite expensive up around the $199 mark. When it comes to getting satellite images onto the alpha 100 it’s not very straight forward. You need a Windows computer, a program called Garmin base camp, and a yearly subscription to Birdseye imagery for each device you want to put the satellite images on; then you can download one area at a time and save it to the devices. You can get your Birdseye subscription directly from Garmin’s website for $29 a year. In our experience if you put too many satellite images on the device it can slow it down, sometimes quite a lot, so be careful of that. On the Alpha you can display more than one mapping option at a time which can be handy when wanting the great visuals of the satellite images but also the specifics of the topo maps; such as showing creeks and rivers more clearly as lines on top of the sat images.
  
  BARK INDICATORS 
  Both units have bark indicators, but honestly, I have not found either of them to be useful. It just annoys me, false detections occur fairly often on both units but appears to be worse on the Pathfinder. The Pathfinder will also repeatedly alert you that the dog is barking. This means if a dog is on the bail you will be continually notified over and over again which gets old pretty fast. They need to have the option to acknowledge that you are aware of the alert so it stops or has a limit on how often it will notify you. Luckily this can be turned off altogether, which is our advice until they improve it.
  
  TRACK & POINT MANAGEMENT
  Storing and managing tracks and waypoints are very important to most hunters. They use stored track data to see where they have been before and to save property boundaries and hidden roads that are hard to find without a GPS. Saved tracks can also help hunters quickly identify their current location in reference to old tracks, which can be very helpful when trying to find the quickest and easiest path to where you want to go. Marking waypoints is even more important, this type of feature allows you to mark important points like dams, pads, markings, and even where you have caught pigs before.
  
  ALPHA 100
  Garmin has always been very good at track and point management; after all, this is an integral feature of a GPS. The Alpha can save and even rename tracks for use later, and you can also show or hide saved tracks from being visible on your live map. You can store up to 200 saved tracks and 2000 archived tracks. The difference being; saved tracks are manually created by you, and archived tracks are created when your current track log is full. When it comes to marking waypoints, you can create up to 4000; I can’t see too many people needing that many. You can also transfer your tracks and waypoints to your computer for backup and even transfer them to other Garmin devices such as the Drive Track. This is a particularly important feature if you upgrade your device to a newer model and want to keep all your data; it is a pain that you need a computer though.
  
  PATHFINDER 
  Unfortunately, at this time, the Pathfinder has a few drawbacks in regards to tracks and point management. After working with Dogmaster who are dealing directly with Dogtra, we can confirm that they intend to address these issues by around February 2020. We can’t make any assurances this will happen, but we are confident they want to solve these issues and will sooner or later. On the Pathfinder you are limited to saving a maximum of 20 waypoints, and once you reach the max limit and want to add new ones, you must then find the old points on the map and delete some. You can manually record tracks, but you must remember to press the record button, and when finished press the stop button, if you don’t, your recording will be lost. To top it off these recordings are essentially useless; you can’t display them on your active map like you can on the Alpha, and to make things even worse you can share your track data via email, but you can’t import it back to your phone. This means if you get a new phone the very limited data you have saved will be lost. When we discovered this we could not believe it; saving tracks and marking locations is the very least you would expect from a system like this. We have suggested that Dogtra solve the above problems and look at introducing a cloud-based system to store the user’s data. This could then be accessed on any phone, tablet or computer, meaning you would never lose your data, and any phone you log into could sync all your points and tracks. Whether Dogtra follow-through is yet to be seen, but they appear to be motivated to solve these issues.
  
  DURABILITY & WARRANTY
  Hunting can be very hard on the gear, so durability is an important factor. Unfortunately, the Pathfinder hasn’t been out long enough to get a clear real-world indication of how durable they are over the long term. However, they do have a 2-year warranty, and the build quality appears to be exceptional. Dogtra has been making training and bark collar systems for a very long time, which are considered some of the best in the world. With any luck, they have used this experience to build a durable tracking system. For many years now a big problem with the Garmin collars has been the breaking of the GPS wire, which in our experience is the reason for most warranty claims. When we compared the GPS wire on the Pathfinder collars to the Garmin collars, the Pathfinders cable looks thicker, and there flex design appears to be more robust than Garmin’s. This could be a big win for Dogtra if their collars can last much longer, the 2-year warranty is a good indication they believe in their product. When it comes to warranty, the Garmin tracking products come with a 1-year warranty; however, Garmin does offer an old for new policy if your product stops working after your warranty expires. This is very helpful for a lot of people as they can send their old gear back to Garmin and exchange for new or refurbished gear. The entire process is simple and straight forward and can save you a ton of money. The last time we sent collars back, the TT15’s were $160 and the T5’s $140, so a massive saving there.
  
  E-COLLARS/TRACK & TRAIN 
  Both units double up as an e-collar collar solution, which can be useful when training younger dogs, or helping to ensure dogs don’t go where you don’t want them to. You need to make sure they are legal in your state though.
  
  ALPHA 100 
  With the Alpha 100 you can buy TT15 collars that have the ability to track and train the dog. The Alpha has the buttons that are easy to access at the top of the handset, this is convenient and ideally where you want them to be. If you’re using the e-collar functions to train a dog, timing is everything, and having these buttons instantly accessible is very useful.
  
  PATHFINDER 
  Currently, all the Pathfinder collars are track and train collars, but using this function on the Pathfinder is not as fast. You need to click to the e-collar section of the app then press the screen to correct the dog. This means it takes a little longer than on the Alpha, especially if your phone is locked. I don’t see this as a huge issue as most hunters only use this function on rare occasions. If you’re using it at home, you could have the e-collar screen open on the Pathfinder app ready to go.
  
  TRACKING OTHER HANDSETS & COMMUNICATIONS
  Both the Alpha and the Pathfinder can track other handsets, not just collars, so, for example, you can track your mates Alpha handset, so you know where he is. However, the Pathfinder can only do this if the handsets are within Bluetooth range of each other, which is a maximum of 60 metres in our experience. The Alpha can send short premade messages to other Alpha units, which is handy, but I guess if you have signal you could text or call your mate with the Pathfinder. If you have a UHF phone combo, then you could use the UHF function when out of service to talk to each other.
  
  EASE OF USE & SPEED
  Time to talk a bit about ease of use; I found the Alpha’s touch screen to be a bit clumsy and not as quick and responsive as a phone running the Pathfinder app. Navigating maps and menus on the Pathfinder is much quicker, more enjoyable and straight forward. It’s easier to use, that’s for sure. The Alpha was particularly sluggish when loading Birdseye satellite images on the screen when out hunting.
  
  GEO FENCE
  Both the Alpha and the Pathfinder support setting geofences, which allows you to mark an area that the dog must remain in; if it leaves the area you will be notified. It’s pretty straight forward, good for making sure your dog remains on the property your hunting or keeping them inside your house yard. Keep in mind it only notifies you that the dog has left the area, it does not tone or zap the dog, but you could do this manually if you think it’s necessary.
  
  BATTERY LIFE
  We found the battery life to be nearly on par for both the Pathfinder, Alpha, and their collars. The Alpha and its collars did seem to last slightly longer, but it wasn’t significant, maybe a 10% difference at most. The Pathfinder and its collars do seem to charge a fair bit faster than the Alpha using its quick charge feature, which is pretty handy. There are a few downfalls to the Pathfinder though if you have a phone that doesn’t have the best battery life, you will need to keep it on charge in the car. It uses your Bluetooth, which can drain your phone’s battery very fast; we did find if you turn cellular and wifi off, and only have the Bluetooth on, then battery life greatly improved.
  
  However, if you get the Armor 3T phone, it has a whopper of a battery that would last much longer than most other phones. Another important factor is charging away from home; for the Alpha we use USB charging banks that connect to the cigarette lighter. They have a separate cord that can go to the back seat; this way, you can charge your collars on the back floor and charge your phone and handset in the front. It is very handy when going away for a few days. Unfortunately, the first thing we noticed when we got our Pathfinder was there wasn’t a car charger. They do supply one with the units now, but it can only charge two devices at a time. Unfortunately, there is no way to plug the Pathfinder charging cables into a charging bank as we do with the Alpha, at least not at the moment. Hopefully Dogtra can come out with a USB style charging bank, so hunters can easily charge many collars and handsets at once. If you do a lot of hunting on foot, the Alpha would probably be the safer option as you can carry spare rechargeable batteries.
  
  NOVELTY FEATURES & ACCESSORIES
  Now onto what I call the novelty section, this is where we list unique features of both units that are not really necessary for what most hunters want but are pretty cool, or completely pointless. On the Pathfinder you can see how fast your dog is traveling which is pretty cool. Judging by how fast he’s traveling you can guess as to whether he’s following strong or old scent, or if he’s in hot pursuit. Because it’s on your phone, you can record the screen and take screenshots to show mates how far your dog tracked out. The Alpha has a few extra features such as moon phases, animal activity predictions and area calculations, but these sorts of things are available through apps on your phone as well. The Alpha does have some additional accessories you can purchase though. The Fenix watch does a lot of cool things but as for the tracking side, it will show you where your dog is quicker than picking up your handset, but It is quite expensive. You can also get the drive track which lets you set up a bigger screen in your cab so everyone in the car can see where the dogs are. On the Pathfinder you could get a cheap tablet to use in your car as a big screen and just put a case on it, which could potentially be better as you may have many more uses for the tablet. Lastly, you can also link the Garmin Virb up to the Alpha handset and view what the camera is seeing through your Alpha. But once again theres many other high-end action cameras that can link with your phone, so this is probably a moot point.
  
  WHAT SHOULD YOU BUY?
  So what should you buy? Well, there’s some good and bad with both of these systems, so it will ultimately come down to what is right for you and fits your needs. I do feel the Alpha will remain the safer option at least until Dogtra fixes the tracks and waypoint issues. When it comes to range both units were pretty on par when using equivalent antennas during our tests. But I don’t think the verdict is out yet, more testing is needed overtime in various terrain, and by different people. Time will tell if the Pathfinder can take over the Alpha as the preferred tracking system.
  
  On the next page we will take a look at the UHF phone, which we think is pretty cool. If you need any tracking gear we have both the Dogtra and Garmin systems, as well as the long-range antennas and covers to go with them. If your interested, head over to the Uhunt app and go to the shop section or jump on the Bristle Up website. We offer great prices as well as aftersale service. If you’re still not sure of what is the right system for you, then feel free to get in touch with us, and we will help you out the best we can.

  Ulefone Armor 3T 
  EXTREMELY TOUGH SMARTPHONE & UHF 
  FROM $499 
  
  FEATURES 
  - 2 watt UHF Function 
  - 10300mAh Big Battery 
  - SONY 21MP Camera - Waterproof and super tough 
  - Fingerprint and facial recognition 
  - detachable antenna 
  - 64GB Storage 
  - NFC+Google Pay 
  - Android 8.1 Oreo 
  - 8-core Helio P23 Strong Processor 
  - 4GB RAM
  
  

  I have been using this phone with the Pathfinder now for a few months and love this combination. The phone is affordable and functions very well. It responds quickly and handles running tons of apps just as well as any other phone I’ve used. It is heavy though, due to its tough build and huge battery. If you’re constantly breaking your phones, this could be the phone for you; it will handle hell and enjoys it. As well as being tough, it’s waterproof, making it the ultimate phone for hunters. The sony camera inside means its photo and video quality is exceptional and would meet most people’s needs, though not quite as good as the latest Samsung Galaxy or iPhone. With a built-in 2 watt UHF and detachable antenna, this would be the perfect phone for home, work, or out in the field, especially for the price. Join it with the Dogtra Pathfinder, and you have yourself a Tracker, Smartphone, and UHF all in one. Only time will tell if this combination will allow the Pathfinder to surpass the Alpha 100.
  
  

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