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Sept 6th 2013

VHF antenna Connection on any Model Garmin Collar
If your not getting the range you should or it comes and goes the first thing you should check is your VHF antenna connection.
The mating surface between the VHF antenna and receiver should be cleaned to a bright shine on both the antenna and the mating surface on the collar. This can be done with a knife blade or small screwdriver. It is very important that the screw that holds the VHF antenna in place is tightened down also.

Here is a picture of the mating surface from a TT10 Antenna about 9 months old.

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Tip of the Day!!

Both on the DC 30 and DC 40 it is a good idea to periodically check the screws that hold the battery housing in place. These screws can back out and then water will get inside. On a DC 30 there are 4 screws, one in each corner of the housing and can be tightened without removing anything. Just use a small screwdriver turn your collar over and tighten each screw found in each corner of the receiver.
On the DC 40 you have to take the collar plate off to get to the screws because there are six of them. Only thing I will caution you about is to use a good set of screwdrivers that fit the screws so you don't damage them.

First picture one is removing the collar plate.


Second picture is showing the location of the six screws around the perimeter of the receiver.


I usually don't do anything to the gasket between the housing and base unless I am changing batteries. I then carefully remove it, clean the mating surface and reinstall the gasket. Some may suggest that could be done on a routine basis which I couldn't disagree with except the parts are hard to come by and caution should be used not to damage your parts.

One note that may save you an extra step. When you put the collar plate back on the DC 40 the G in Garmin goes toward the Buckle end of the collar. If you put it on the other way the charging clip won't connect correctly.

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Registered: Apr 2013
Location: michigan
Posts: 416

thank you for your tip very helpfull i have the alpha and wondering about maintaining them

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The Antenna Connection Tip is one you should do. There will be more in the future. There are also plenty of good U-Tube videos on the ALPHA. Gives some great tips on using the shocking system and setup. Just do a U-Tube search.

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Getting a lot of calls about the DC 50 Bark Indication and how it works.
There are to things you have to turn on to make this work.

First is the bark detection
Menu
Menu
setup
dogs
"bark detection"
select and turn on.

Once that is done then go to dog alerts and do this
Menu
Menu
setup
dogs
"Dog Alerts"
"Bark Alert"
You select
vibrate
tone
tone and vibrate
message only
once that is selected it will give you a bark rate to alert you at.

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Tuesday's Tip of the Day is "YOU TUBE". Several people have taken the time to video important information about the Astro and Alpha series of dog tracking equipment.
Buddy (hounded) out in Washington and Buzzard from Buzzard Roost along with others including Garmin have some outstanding instructional videos available.
They are easy to find, just go to youtube.com and then in the search bar type in what your looking for. Be specific at first and then if you don't find something be more general. For example I typed in "DC 40 with solid red light" and I get the video Buddy made on solving your problem.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HH7nsgXHQ_w

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Registered: Jul 2007
Location: WESTERN MARYLAND
Posts: 5948

Good post keep it up. Good question n answer will be good.

UKC consider making this a sticky, that way it will be easy to locate.

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Wednesdays Tip

Your only getting 200 yards before you loose signal. That is a sure indication of a VHF antenna problem. The Collar and the Handheld communicate the same as many of the handheld radios do and that is through a VHF signal. The VHF antenna on the collar is the long thin antenna. The VHF antenna on the handheld is the antenna on the right side.
Why is 200 yards the magic number. Because without a VHF antenna you can get 200 yards before losing signal. So if your only getting 200 yards then one of the antennas is not working. First thing to do is determine if it is the collar or the handheld. That can be done buy checking other collars on your handheld or checking your collar with a buddies handheld. The collar antenna goes bad from constant flex and breaks the wire inside. On the Handheld the wire at the bottom of the SMA connection generally gets broke form changing antennas and putting the antenna on to tight and breaking the wire at the bottom of the connection. It can also happen if the nut that holds the sma connection in comes loose. This nut should be checked and kept snug.
One other indication of a vhf antenna problem on the collar is the signal will be in then lost and then picked it back up a few hundred yards away. This is the wire in the antenna broke and periodically making connection.

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If anyone else wants to share any information or tips that would be great!!

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Registered: Feb 2011
Location: Lovingston, VA
Posts: 111

I just got all new dc50 garmin collars, after sellin my dc40s to get the added range . Today i hung a new dc50 in my yard and drove down the road to see how much more range it had i got 2.3 miles away and it showed i was 46 miles from the collar! So i turned around and it still showed i was going away from the collar , got a mile closer and it jumped back to the right distance! What tha h.. ! Garmin needs to get the bugs worked out of the products before they jump and put this stuff on the market for people to buy. They post these adds that it so much better and when you get it it's not what they said !I like the garmin products but they need to test this stuff more before they put the big price tags on it. Has anyone had this trouble with dc50s ? I'm sure i'm not the only one. Thanks

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5walkrs Garmin is working fast and furious on this issue. It seems to be location specific which makes it even more difficult for them. But there is good news. I will send you a PM on what can help out your situation. I feel that within a couple weeks this problem will be history.

Last edited by on 09-13-2013 at 01:08 PM

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Running your Astro 320 and Alpha from a power cable in the truck. Many of you run your Garmin Handhelds off a power cable in your truck. Especially if your a yote, fox, bear or run deer with dogs type of hunter. Couple things you should know. Just because it is a power cable with a plug that fits your Garmin doesn't mean your getting the performance you should out of your Astro. Also there are different current loads on the power supply and cables you should be aware of.

First thing is running a power cable does not charge your batteries. I know that sometimes when you unplug your power cable and if you check your battery life right away it appears to have perhaps a bar more than when you plugged it up. That will go away real fast as you were not charging the battery.

Second thing is with the Astro 320 you can reduce the range on your astro by not using the power cable Garmin designed for it. The charger Product ID number designed for the ASTRO 320 is 010-10851-12

Third thing is the car charger that comes with the ALPHA and the car charger that comes with the Astro 320 are not the same. The ALPHA comes with a splitter cable and due to having the capability of charging two devices at once the ALPHA car charger is a 2 amp charger. Be careful if you see your buddies ALPHA charging with a splitter cable and your go out and buy one for your ASTRO and use it with the ASTRO car charger.

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Registered: Jan 2012
Location:
Posts: 64

Any idea as to why when i am walking or moving my 320 reads accurate and correct but as soon as i stop moving it automatically reads backwards? It didnt seem to do this untill i put a new map card in it.
Also, i read somewhere that garmin had a bad batch of DC40'S something about the first 3 didgits starting with 215 and the last 4 digits being in the 5000 range, any truth to this because i have one collar that will not link up but about 2 min then reception is lost and will not come back....ive tried a new antenna, updating the collar, unplugging the collar in hopes of reseting it but nothing works!
Appreciate any info you have.....thanks man!

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Lee when you say reads accurate are you speaking of the compass on the compass page or are you saying your on the map page and it goes from being correct to reading backwards. If your on the map page the one thing that comes to mind is how your have it set up. Either North UP or Track UP. I think the majority run in the Track Up mode and if your in the North Up mode things can look backwards.
In the track up mode no matter which way you turn the map on the screen represents whats in front of you and the lay of the land. If your on North UP and your face South the screen will look backwards and if your dogs are on the right side of the road they will be on the left side of the road on the map.

I do know that about two years ago something happened to a run of DC 40's and it was detected pretty quick. I did get a note from Garmin saying they got the problem fixed and they gave me a serial number and wanted to be contacted if I had any units sold that was outside that serial number range having problems. The problem got fixed and I didn't keep the serial numbers they gave me so I do not know what they were.

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Registered: Jan 2012
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Posts: 64

I sure do appreciate the help man....i was pretty sure that it was set to "track up" but i will double check it when i get home this evening. Thanks again!

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If it set to Track Up we have some head scratching to do. Just let me know.

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Registered: Jan 2012
Location: Goshen,Ohio
Posts: 2679

What would cause the 320 to erase the dog tracks like every 10 mins? I have it set on 2 hours.I erased all my hunts that were saved in the archive and it fixed it for a little while.Had all my stuff updated too and it went right back to deleting the dogs tracks like a smoke trail.It does not delete my tracks.

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Registered: Feb 2011
Location: Lovingston, VA
Posts: 111

Thanks,Bruce i hope they get this matter cleared up soon. I don't run a roof top ant. i'm just a coon hunter and keep mine in my vest pocket. So hopefully this will go away soon before i start hunting hard this season. I really like all the garmin products i've had before was just really lookin forward to the performance of the new dc50s and haven't got that yet. Thanks for the reply on my problem i'm having. I talked to the people at garmin and he said they are workin on this matter, i sure hope he's right!

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I am sure you are aware of the feature of being able to remove the tracks from the screen by pushing the map button when one the map page. Push the map button and one track will go away, push it again all tracks go away. Are we sure we are not having this happen?

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Since it's Saturday and a few of you may have some extra time sitting around drinking an Ice Tea and enjoying life, my tip is this.
"Take some time to explore and learn your Garmin Astor or Alpha System".
Seriously, your dogs well being depends on you being able to operate your system and determine real problems the system may be having from Operator Error.
I have to keep it simple for me to understand. I look at the computer on my desk and the Garmin Astro the same. They are filing cabinets like I use to have in the old days. Those filing cabinets from the old days gathered information in drawer 1, drawer 2 or drawer 3. My computer and your Garmin Astro does the same thing. It is not rocket science. You just have to learn where stuff is filed and then go get it.
I Astro is more complicated than I will ever understand but also I don't need to understand it all. I just need to find my dog and keep him safe.
I look at the Astro has having three sections. DOG, MAP and the MENU for all other. All other is a lot. lol
To keep it simple you can just say DOG and MAP and learn those to functions and how they work.
Lets take DOG for example.
Push your dog button and it will list the dog or dogs you have loaded into your Astro*. This page can be set up with the letters big or small. If BIG is selected then it will show one dog and you have to scroll to find your second dog. If you have it set up small you will see up to three dogs and have to scroll to see more if they are loaded on your Astro. (*they will be there if loaded and you have tracking enabled. If you stopped the tracking on them they will be gone from this page but be on the dog list)
Lets say you have pushed your dog button.
Select one dog by highlighting the name and hit enter. That takes you to what I call the batter indication page or information page. That is specific to the dog your selected. It shows battery life, signal strength, ID number and several other things. When on that page you then push the menu button and you have a list of things that is specific to the collar you have selected. For example the second thing on the list says "identify dog unit" With your collar on you select that and push the button it will cause that collar light to flash real fast so you can identify it. More importantly if you look on the screen of your astro it will show the ID number and the software version you have downloaded to you collar. Two important notes from this page. In the middle of the list is "delete track" this clears up the memory in the collar and should be done on a regular basis. The last item on the list if your collar is a 30 or 40 is update dog unit. From a astro 320 you can update your collar using this selection. You should never just be playing around and start the update and stop in the middle. Your collar will not function after that.

You can then go and push MAP. Then push menu and you have a list of things specific to your map. Best thing to do is take item by item from the list and select it and see what that does.

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What batteries should I use in 220 or 320. My personal choice is just alkaline batteries. If you use rechargeable or lithium make sure your change the system settings to the battery your using. I have seen the most unexplained things happen with using lithium batteries and setting is on alkaline.

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Registered: Mar 2012
Location: WV
Posts: 144

ttt thanks lots of good tips

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Registered: Nov 2011
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Posts: 856

Here is one of my tips.
Your 320 will have an alarm feature. The Alpha probably has too.
If you are going hunting, set that alarm to go off after a few hours after you turn loose. If you loose it, like some on here have, then you know when you realize it is missing that the alarm is set to sound at a particular time and while you walk through the woods trying to find it you can listen for it.
Choose an alarm tone that you think you can hear the furthest away. You will have to scroll through them until you find one you like.
If you don't loose it, when the alarm goes off, just up it a couple more hours.
That alarm will sound until you tell it to stop or the batteries run down.

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Registered: May 2008
Location: Gillett, Pa
Posts: 1876

my tip of the day sam's club aa Duracell copper tops 48 pack 15 bucks plus tax !

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Garminguru that is pretty good tip.

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