Oak Ridge
UKC Forum Member
Registered: Aug 2003
Location: Indiana
Posts: 6168 |
Those of you that know me, know that I'm a "gadget guy". If it has to do with electronics, I am drawn to it....and I live by the motto, he who has the most toys wins....
To go along with that, at the AKC World hunt I purchased a Garmin Astro tracking system. What little bit that I have been able to use it, I'm learning more and more about it even though the State of Indiana has me "locked out" of the woods.
Out of the box, it's a cool little gadget. The GPS unit is probably one of the best hand held GPS units for sale. I am amazed at how quickly it picks up the satellite signal, and it has lots of cool "features" that I'm still working to figure out. I can say this....out of the box, the maps that are installed on the unit leave you wanting more....and as such....I loaded the software on my computer and installed the "Trip and Waypoint Manager" software that has a little more detailed "base map" in it.
The illustration to the above is an actually track that was completed by one of my dogs with the collar on. This is what is available with the standard base map that comes with the system. As you can see, not a lot of detail to the map...well actually NO detail whatsoever. If you are simply looking to locate your dog...this is a cool feature You can follow your dog along as it hunts, you have a good idea where it struck, and you can certainly figure out which direction the dog is when it is treed.
Being the gadget guy that I am.....I'm not satisfied with the base model of just about anything. I already had a memory card that fit the unit from one of my other electronic ventures, so I installed the memory card in the GPS and purchased the Topographical Maps from Garmin.
As you can see, the detail is a little more striking. You can see roads, and topographical features on the map now, with the same track superimposed. Of course, in my country, the topo information is not that pronouced as it is mostly "flatter n' a pancake" around here. Probably the most important feature for this map is the addition of roads (even the country back roads) and bodies of water. I can certainly see where knowing where a river or lake is would come in handy when trying to pick a route to your dog.
I have gained a lot of knowledge about how my dogs hunt, and what they are doing when they are free cast using this "tool". It is certainly much more than a tracking system, only to be used when you don't know where your dog is! More on that later.
This last illustration is a feature of the "Trip and Waypoint Manager" software that comes standard with the Astro. With the help of Randy Sexton, I was able to figure out how to make use of the "view in Google Earth" function. What this does is to superimpose the same track information over a satellite image! You wanna talk abou educational! I did notice that the Topo view was a little "off" compared to the satellite view. If you went by the line drawing in the Topo map, you would think that the dog ran down the edge of the field and went straight into the timber and got treed. That simply is not the case. The dog got struck in the field to the North. It was a standing corn field, then moved that track into the timber and got treed just inside the timber. This track is not very long, nor is it very "confusing", part of why I used it for this article. The dog in question is a quick locator and we were rewarded with eyes in the top of the tree. The Google Earth view will allow me to zoom in far enough that I can almost pick out the exact tree where the coon was located!
Overall, I think this is going to become an invaluable tool. I hunt a lot of young dogs, and I think over time it will help me evaluate a dogs locating ability, and to understand how it goes about picking the right tree.....as well as if it's off "loafing", or avoiding water, thick cover, etc.
Coon hunting has certainly come a long way since the days of carbide lights and bailer twine lead straps!
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Joe Newlin
UKC Cur Advocate
Home of Oak Ridge Kennels
Last edited by Oak Ridge on 11-02-2007 at 08:13 PM
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10-22-2007 10:13 PM
