Alpha Reviews

Is any one using the New Garmin Alpha and if so what do u think so far?

I upgraded to the alpha in november and am really happy with it. I really like the buddy tracking comes in real handy bunny hunting nowing where other people you are hunting with are. Havent really tested the range to much but i did have to run in town this weekend while me and a buddy were running and the gps started beeping for lost signal on the dogs that were still running at around 2 miles. It links up a lot faster than the astros. If you coon hunt it has 3 collars in one with the gps/shocker/lighted collar all in one. I have no complaints so far. It does take a little bit to figure out the controls because they are different than the astros

How do u like the touch screen?

i also upgraded to the alpha due to having so many problems with the 40 collars and so far i am very happy with it. i get really good range out of and it hardly ever lose the collars and from what ive seen the shocker works much farther than my trashbreaker did.

Havent had any problems with the touch screen yet. I have used it a few days now when temps have been in the single digits and low teens without any problems. It does work with gloves on too, but with the big bulky gloves its a little hard to use but still works

I also switched over to the Alpha Back in December to run cats. And I have two issues with it. 1. Your tracks only stay on for two hours. 2. U can only track the alpha collars with it. other then those two things not really seeing a big difference in the tracking capabilities compared to the Astro. It is nice to have that electro therapy feature.

If you cant change the track data to more then 2 hours wouldnt make me very happy.I know u can change that on the 320 unit.

i purchased a new garmin alpha back in december. I haveonly used it probly 5 times so far. i had trouble with the pointer on my compass pointing the opposite direction of my dog at times. i called garmin and they told me to do the updates,so i did and that didnt help. i then calibrated the compass and that seem to take care of it. i had calibrated it before and im not sure why i would have to keep doing that?? has anyone had this problem?? i have talked with a few guys that have them that never had this issue and love theres. as for me, i love the unit as long as i get the pointer thing taken care of. the touch screen works great even in cold temps.

snowdog,

I dont think that is an "ALPHA" only problem with regard to your compass quirk. My 320 does the same thing actually. Ive just gotten into the habit of recalibrating my unit before I start each hunt, its a pain at first but its second nature now.

blackhillblues,

and i take it that fixes the problem for you? thanks for the info. im headed to n.h hunting tomorrow so should be able to see if it fixes it for me.

snowdog,

Yeah that works for me, I recalibrate it right before I drop the dogs wherever I'm hunting, it points true after that.

blackhillblues,  

             I was just reviewing some old posts. calibrating the compass on my alpha definitely solved my problem this winter. so, thank you for that info. are you training on coon now? and how is it going? do you have a good coon population up your way?

Just bought a 6 dog system, buddy from double u graphics gave me a good deal. I talked to him about the collar size for small 12, 13 inch hounds and he is going to work on it and see if he can't come up with a modification to shorten the distance between the battery housing and gps module.