Ozziedoggers Tracker Review
Stage 1 – Radio Telemetry Tracking Systems Review
Sugar Cane
We hope that members and readers can get some good information out of the results we found. Unfortunately not all of the systems in the Australian market today could be tested. Some manufactures could not supply anything as ‘apparently’ they were out of stock and others refused to be involved in such a review. Most of these units were actually supplied by our members. The units we did test were the
The Ozziedoggers Tracker Review ( stage 1 ) – took place in some great sugar cane country of SEQ – namely the
This was really good as we all came from different backgrounds and hunt quite different terrain. Our original plan was to test each of the units in different terrain – however due to time constraints, this was not possible. Hence why this is stage 1 – if we have enough support from like minded hunters we will attack a different terrain and publish the results as this review is only specific to Sugar Cane. It could also be adapted to thick cropping country such as corn or sorghum.
This review will not give you a clear cut winner at all – it will simply give you an educated estimate of what we thought on the day. We rated every detail we thought worthy without going over board and confusing anyone that wants to get information out of this review. Every criterion was given a score out of 10. Each individual panel member discussed there findings privately and their scores recorded so there was no communication between each panel member. We conducted this review as honestly and as fair as possible.
At this point I would like to invite anyone else to do a similar review and publish their findings. If you are a member of Ozziedoggers and would like to see a tracker review take place in your terrain. Please go to our website and express your interest on our Contact Us page. www.ozziedoggers.org
What did the panel think was important in a receiver?
Three major things were comman between us – Portability, Practicality and Ease of Use.
Portability : Seeing as though this test was held in the sugar cane – it obviously makes sense to have a smaller system. The size of the unit, including its weight was taken into account. Now if you are in the cane trying to locate your dog, the Setup and Pack up of the unit is crucial. Valuable time is wasted trying to unfold your receiver in preparation to start tracking your dog within the cane. Obviously the amount of time it takes to pack it away has an impact of how quick you can get to your dog and the pig. Stating this, we realise that not all the time you will be within the realm of the cane. Be it either the headlands or rows that are clear, it still takes time to setup and pack up, which could quite literally be the difference of life / death or injury to even catching the pig. So the majority of our scores were based within the cane. The Pouch supplied with the tracking system even got a score here, as cane is hard on dog, hunter and equipment we though it viable to score the pouch / carry bag as well.
Practicality : Wow – this took a lot of effort to decide on what we were going to have as criteria. I guess the single most important feature of any system is it’s Ease Of Use, and of course how quick it is to Learn how to use it. Both of these certainly warranted an individual score, how ever, other contributing criteria were also scored.
The Visual and Audible guidance from the receiver played a major role in the practicality which also contributes to its use in Day Time and Night Time.
Gain Adjustment is without a doubt the hardest thing to master. Even seasoned hunters can still have some difficulties at times in different terrain. The gain adjustment does take time, and always seems to be something you continually have to tweak to get the most benefit from your system.
Just remember practise makes perfect – and I would suggest to anyone who purchases a new system to develop the gain adjustment skills before going out into the field. You have just spent a lot on an investment that should help get you to your dogs quicker. Rather than thinking you are a super hero with a new toy that will be the answer to all your problems make sure you can use your unit properly before venturing out.
Go Time – this is the amount of time it takes to pull the receiver out of the pouch, turn it on, pick which collar you want to track and start tracking. It also involves finding the right direction you think the dogs are in and start to move in that direction.
The go time is really the most important factor when trying to locate your dog.
Obviously the Visual Durability is worthy of a score. We can not obviously test this manually – so we decided if we were to drop a unit from a height or imagined if the receiver was accidently walked over by man, dog or pig which unit would we think would hold up to that sort of punishment.. No science or factual evidence here at all – simply a personal opinion from each of the panel.
Other factors we looked at were switching between collars (Collar Switching), how easy it was to Tune your receiver to the collar.
Hopefully our review will help out anyone entering into the telemetry market. Radio Telemetry will still be around for a long time to come.
The GPS tracking systems are entering the playing field now – the Garmin Astro is becoming increasingly popular to hunters throughout
When a legal GPS alternative is made available in
What did the panel think was important in the transmitter (collar)
Unfortunately not all the makes of collars were available for us to test. We could not definitively measure the actual range of the transmitter collars. We did however score them on a few different things. Visual Durability was the major player in the test, we did not get hammers or knives out to test the strength of the collars – simply compared them side by side and tried to visually evaluate them. Size / Compactness was another criterion – we felt that the smaller the unit the less likely it was to be in the road or less likely to be damaged whilst hunting – we will discuss a few other features of the individual collars later in the review.
The method of madness we used to test the units was pretty simple. Static tests were mainly used so we could accurately compare each units features. We also strapped the collars to an ATV and tested the units at pre determined waypoints and also random courses which simulated dogs working. Each panel member was given ample time to learn and discover the ins and outs of each system. Everyone trialled each unit and various simulations were set up to provide us with a live hunt.
A realistic simulation of a seriously injured dog or worse was made with a panel member hiding in a block of cane. The rest of the panel members then took off in pursuit in an attempt to find the collar (injured dog). This test was performed a few time so each panel member had a chance to use each system.
Unfortunately dogs did not get utilised as each dogs behaviour and hunting traits could not fully represent a tracking systems efficiency in the field. There will no doubt be discussion and accusations of bias flying around with this review. If they can come up with a fair measurement whilst in live hunt situation with dogs – I would love to see the method and their results.
The Results + Brief Review
The Marshall Tracking System.
A new comer to the Australian market had us excited and thrilled to test this unit. The test unit was supplied by Rob Martin from Oz Wide Outdoor Adventures and we commend him on his fast delivery and his professional service to help us with our tracker review. We were sent a
The Sugar Cane was not the ideal test for this unit, being a yagi style receiver its small and compact size for a yagi system was still a little to big to carry through the cane. If you simply used the system to locate where your dogs were and went in on foot from there this would be a great system. I really think that this system would seriously excel in more open country and light scrub areas where you can manoeuvre a lot easier in the terrain to get to your dogs.
From the testing we conducted, the
The
The Marshall Powermax Collars were very impressive to say the least. They operate on replaceable AA batteries, which of course is extremely cheap to buy, keep and maintain.
The range as suggested by the retailers is 15 – 20km real hunting conditions
The battery life of the receiver is suggested at 12 hours powered by 6 x AA batteries.
The battery life of the Powermax collars is suggested at : 600 hours with just (2) AA
* No special batteries needed at all – just normal run of the mill AA batteries!!!
The collars are constructed of aircraft aluminium for ruggedness and seem a very strong and compact collar. To add to the attraction the Powermax collar comes standard with built in LED lights that can easily be turned on and off. This in itself could save you a lot of dollars when night hunting if you normally run glow sticks. Although this does not affect or make the collar a better performer it is certainly a nice feature or sweetener when you’re in the market to purchase a new collar. Another feature that is standard with the Powermax collar is its down dog mode. If your dog is stationary for more than 5 minutes the beeps / signal slows to represent a dog down.
Warranties are important to mention here and the
The turn around of service should take no longer than 24 hours from when your faulty equipment arrives till its fixed and ready to be sent back to you.
There were some minor changes we thought may be needed to help improve this system. Changing from collar to collar (dog to dog) was very easy, although on the rest of the systems on the market today, it was pretty much a one button job. This is a really petty argument as to change the collar took maybe 3 seconds more than its other competitors. Not an issue at all, but something that was mentioned from all involved in the review.
The dials and switches used to operate the system were a little difficult for larger fingers also for those with deteriorating eyesight found the system slightly harder to use. The supplied collar is just too short for the average hunting dog – when ordering just request a longer collar..
The Marshall Tracking System will be more suited to other terrain rather than sugar cane and we hope that we have enough support to go on to Stage 2 of our review. I for one would be very interested in the results of this unit in the river / open country I hunt.
*NB We only had this unit 4 days before doing this review.
The RRP for a one collar system is $1530
Contact : Oz Wide Outdoor Adventures - Ph 0359400003
The Tracker Tracking system.
The tracker has been in the telemetry market for a number of years – a serious and well known contender in all of these years. The Tracker operates in the 151mhz range. The trackers small and rugged design made it an outstanding performer in the sugar cane. The Tracker was very easy to use and carry through the cane, it fits nice and snug on your hunting belt and can be taken out and used with the greatest of ease. The body of the receiver seemed to be the most durable, from a visual point of view anyway. This is a good feature to have as cane being very hard to manoeuvre in; you can end up on your side, your guts or on your ass whilst in the thick of all the action.
The range on the tracker surprised most of us as it was a big performer on the static distance tests we done. No definitive distance was measured however the tracker was right up there with the full yagi antenna receivers.
The tracker was easy to use, and definitely suited to the sugar cane environment. The tracker collars are made from solid alloy and have 2 antennas. This could be of benefit if one antenna was bitten off by a pig or got ripped off by a fence or other obstacles in the bush. The tracker collar is also heat shrinked – this seems to add an extra layer of protection before a tusk can damage the actual transmitter collar. They also come standard with a bark indicator.
The range as suggested by the retailers is up to 20km’s Line Of Sight
The battery life of the receiver is suggested at over 12 months from a 9v battery
The battery life of the tracker collars is suggested at up to 400 hours.
The transmitter uses 3.6 volt lithium batteries (2) -each battery is $15.95 (rrp)
Warranties are important to mention here, the receiver chassis has a 10 year warranty as with the antennas. The electronics have a 5 year warranty. The transmitter collar’s solid alloy case has a 10 year warranty; electronics in the collar comes with a 5 year warranty. There is no warranty on the antennas on the collars.
The turn around of service should take no longer than 5 working days from when you’re posted faulty product arrives to them - to receiving a working product back to your door ready to use. This is however highly dependant on the season.
A few minor things we were concerned about was the strength of the receiver antennas, none of the panel had heard of any being broken before though. Talking to other hunters there has been an ongoing issue of not getting the trackers to work properly. We did not experience any difficulties at the review so can not comment further.
The RRP for a one collar system is
Tracker Classic $1,399 (can track up to 2 dogs)
Tracker Maxima $1,999 (can track up to 10 dogs)
For any more information please contact
The Contact Pro
The Contact Pro has now been a player in the Oz market for a little while now. The statement of being extremely easy to use was certainly backed from the panel members of the review.
The Contact Pro was the first to locate a hidden collar within the cane from all of the static tests we conducted, regardless of operator and their previous experience, and received great praise amongst the panel.
The Contact Pro was the smallest unit tested. Its small stature makes it remarkably easy to carry and use within the cane. A very easy to use interface makes using the Contact Pro attractive to beginners and fine tuning, swapping collars to adjusting the volume were all easy to carry out tasks.
Pulling out and putting away is a very quick and simple task as with any small tracking system. If for whatever reason the antennas on the receiver or the collars are broken off – they are user replaceable in the field. A very handy feature as it will let you continue on hunting / and or find your dog rather than leaving a hunt early or spending countless hours looking for your untraceable dog.
The Contact Pro collars are also small, which in turn makes them less likely to get caught on scrub, fences or be bitten by pigs. The collars come standard with a motion sensor. The frequency of beeps / signal is heightened whilst the dog is running. When the dog is stopped or moving slowly the beeps are less frequent. A good little indication of what is going on out there to some degree.
The range as suggested by the retailers is up to 10km
The battery life of the Contact Pro receiver is suggested at over 16 hours from 2 AA batteries, MUCH longer if AA lithium batteries are used.
The battery life of the Contact Pro collars is suggested at up to 400 hours
The transmitter uses a single 3.6 volt lithium battery (1) - each battery is $20.00 (RRP)
Warranties are important to mention here, the Contact Pro receiver has a 2 year warranty and the collars have a 1year warranty.
The turn around of service should take no longer than 48 working hours from when you’re posted faulty product arrives to them - to having a working product ready to send back to your door ready to use. It should be noted that the contact pro is serviced and repaired by qualified technical staff in
The Contact Pro – visually does not 'look' or 'feel' as tough as its rivals, however the test units we had were a few years old and still in great condition.
The collars also presented less rugged then its competitors. The collars are made from high quality ABS plastic. Some collars did have some good hits from tusks on them, however there was no affect to performance.
The Contact Pro can sometimes have interference with some UHF radio's. Another issue is the dial (gain control) can fall off or get stuck. A major issue with the contact pro is the difficulty in tracking multiple dogs. If one dog comes back and another is still away - trying to find the dog that is away becomes really difficult as the collar on the dog near you really interferes with your ablility to find the dog away. This is avoidable by turning the collar of the dog near you off. This can be a disadvantage especially if that near dog then goes back out before you get a chance to turn the collar back on. You then have an untrackable dog. All in all - a good system in the cane.
The RRP for a one collar system is : $1249 ( can track over 10 dogs )
Contact No Bull
Or
Canine Perfection on Ph. 0458CANINE (0458226463) www.canineperfection.com.au
The Wildlife Tracking System
The wildlife system has been around for a long time. The wildlife was a very popular system at the beginning of dog tracking in
The review was somewhat unfair on the wildlife – as the system was the largest in the field. The wildlife was great to get an approximate direction on where to start moving towards. The wildlife had some difficulties in its manoeuvrability and use throughout the cane. Saying this, the wildlife may be the ducks nuts out in the open. The wildlife was easy to use and find the location to start moving too.
It would be really interesting to test the wildlife receiver in its niche environment – anyone who uses this system in the cane – I take my hat off to them.
The wildlife collars on the other hand are a great collar. The transmitter is a nice compact size that follows the contours of the collar / dogs neck / breast plate. We only had one style of wildlife collar – they do make an arrangement of collars for all applications. I would recommend contacting wildlife materials, and enquiring as to which collar will best suit your needs. The battery life is also very good on the wildlife collars.
The warranty on the wildlife receiver and collars is 5 years. The turnaround is quick with a demo collar / receiver sent to you direct so you can keep hunting while your gear is sent back to the manufacturer for repair or service, which may take a few weeks.
The range as suggested by the retailers on the Wildlife receivers is up to 20km’s Line Of Sight.
The battery life of the Wildlife receiver is suggested at 13 – 15 hours – the receiver takes 8 x AAA batteries
The battery life of the Wildlife collars is suggested at up to 600 hours.
The transmitter uses half size 3.6 volt lithium batteries. (2) Which in turn makes the collar a 7.2v collar - each battery is $8.00 (RRP)
*NB The unit supplied - had previously been sent away to be fixed, and returned apparently faulty. There had been limited support/training in using this unit from the distributor which adversly may have altered the above results. These are the results we found on the day of the test. Another working unit may have had different results. (added after the review)
The RRP for a one collar system is :
TRX 3 = $1140 (can track 3 dogs)
TRX 16 = $1450 ( can track 16 dogs )
Special – TRX 16 with four (4) collars $1995
Contact Pig
In closing, I hope you have taken some valuable information out of this review, and hopefully with your support we can tackle another terrain or even different kinds of equipment.
This review would not have happened without the help of Ozziedoggers members..
A big thanks goes to Jimmy and Jacinta for their hospitality and providing us with a home base to work from for the tracker review, as well as feeding us savages.
Also a big thanks to Boarbags and his father Trevor for providing us with the country / location to conduct our review.
Other members that donated their time and travelled from afar to make this review a success also need a big thanks and we at Ozziedoggers really appreciate the time and effort that these guys put in to make the weekend a great weekend.
Martin
Bentek
Damo
Boarbasher
Wayne Flintham
www.Ozziedoggers.org