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GARMIN 010-00596-00 Astro Dog Tracking System Combination Unit | 
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| Brand: Garmin
Category: CE
List Price: $624.82
Buy New: $426.48
You Save: $198.34 (32%)
New (41)
Avg. Customer Rating:  17 reviews
Platform: Not Machine Specific
Media: Electronics
Memorabilia: No
Batteries Included: Yes
Native Resolution: 160 x 240
Display Size: 3
Includes MP3 Player: 0
Size: Garmin Part #010-00596-00
Shipping Weight (lbs): 4.6
Dimensions (in): 2.6 x 2.4 x 6.2
Legal Disclaimer: Warranty does not cover misuse of product.
MPN: Astro Combo Unit
Model: Astro Combo Unit
UPC: 689076491907
EAN: 0689076491907
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Features:
| • | GPS Receiver: | | • | Barometric Altimeter And Brand New 3-Axis Electronic Compass | | • | Scratch Resistant Lens On The 2.6-Inch Color Tft Display With Backlit Display & Keypad | | • | Resolution: 240 X 160 Pixels | | • | Weight: 6.4 Ounces Without Batteries |
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| Accessories:
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Tired of searching for your hunting dog in tall grass or dense cover? Now you can leave the hunting entirely to him. Introducing Astro, the first high sensitivity GPS-enabled dog-tracking system for hunters and sportsmen. This unique system pinpoints your dog's position and shows you exactly where he is, even when you can't see or hear him. The Astro system includes a bright color-screen handheld GPS device and a wireless transmitter, called the DC 20. To get started, just take Astro outdoors and turn on the handheld and transmitter to acquire GPS satellite signals. Then attach the DC 20 to your dog, either with the included dog harness or by threading it onto a 1-inch e-collar. Now you're ready to turn him loose ? no other setup required. As often as every five seconds, your dog's DC 20 transmits his position to your handheld, and you can see his current location and a trail of where he's been on the Map page of your handheld. Switch over to the Dog Tracker page to view a compass pointing to your dog's location as well as his current status: whether he's running, sitting, on point or treeing quarry. Astro can also sound an alarm to let you know instantly when your dog goes on point. Astro boasts a high-sensitivity GPS receiver that can track your dog's position even in the densest cover. You can track up to ten dogs at one time with Astro, at a distance of up to five miles away (depending on terrain). The system transmits information by line-of-sight, so it reaches farthest in flat, open territory. Waypoints/icons - 1000 with name and graphic symbol
Amazon.com Product Description
The Garmin Astro GPS Dog Tracking System lets hunters and sportsmen spend their time looking for game, rather than looking for their dog. This unique dog-tracking system pinpoints your dog's position and shows you exactly where he is, even when you can't see or hear him. This system includes a bright, color-screen handheld Astro 220 GPS device and a wireless transmitter, called the DC 20. Simple and easy to use, you just take the Astro outdoors and turn on both units to acquire a GPS satellite signal, then attach the DC 20 to your dog, either via the included neoprene harness or by threading it onto an existing 1-inch e-collar, and you're ready to go. 
The Astro system features a bright color-screen handheld GPS device and a wireless transmitter. View larger. | 
View the Astro minisite | 
Tired of searching for your hunting dog in tall grass or dense cover? The Astro is the answer. View larger. | The DC 20 transmits your dog's position to your handheld every five seconds, showing current location as well as where he's been on the Map page. The Dog Tracker page shows you a compass that points to your dog's location, and lets you see your dog's current status, such as running, sitting, on point or treeing quarry. The Garmin Astro can even sound an alarm to let you know instantly when your dog goes on point. The Astro 220's high-sensitivity GPS receiver can track your dog's position even in the densest cover, and lets you track up to 10 dogs at one time, up to five miles away in open territory. The Astro features a Covey Counter, which lets you place a special waypoint that tells you the exact location, time of day and elevation where you found your prey, as well as the number of birds flushed and taken from that location. The Astro also lets you save other important waypoints, such as Truck and Lodge, and choose special icons to represent food plots, tree stands and other hunting-related items. The full-featured Astro handheld has all the same functions as Garmin's top-line handheld outdoor devices, including a barometric altimeter, a microSD card slot for maps, celestial information and an area calculator, as well as optional detailed city street maps, over 6 million points of interest, and exact turn-by-turn directions. This unit has an extremely rugged construction, with an IPX7 waterproof exterior that can withstand full immersion in water up to 1-meter deep for up to 30 minutes, and a revolutionary 3-axis compass that works no matter how the handheld is oriented. 
Each dog's collar transmits his exact location to you. | 
A variety of bright and colorful icons and markers are available. | 
Check sun and moon cycles for your location. | 
Special waypoint icons to represent food plots, tree stands, and other hunting-related points. |
What's in the Box
Garmin Astro 220 handheld with VHF antenna and DC 20 wireless transmitter with VHF antenna, a neoprene harness, a collar attachment plate, a carrying case, a lithium-ion battery pack for the DC 20 transmitter, a vehicle power adapter and AC adapter for the DC 20 transmitter, a trip and waypoint manager CD, a USB cable, a wrist strap, a belt clip, an owner's manual and a quick reference guide.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 12 more reviews...
Well thought out with a few rough edges you should know about October 20, 2007
29 out of 29 found this review helpful
Update - I ordered the car mount antenna and found the range boost phenominal. In CITY range went from .7 miles to 1.7 miles, almost the full 2 mile rating. In Country range went over 4 miles. It is the best $25 spent plus amazon's price on the accessory is heavily discounted over garmin's. If you think you may have to use your 4WD to find your dogs, start using the external antenna accessory option from the beginning.
I got my Astro about a month ago and from the start the 2 mile range wasn't there (more like .33 miles maximum). I checked it with a pulse wattmeter from HP/agilent and it was outputting only 0.45 watts for .38 seconds, not the 2W rating (and the battery lasted alot longer than it was supposed to for some reason!). I shipped it to garmin, got it back and it was now putting out 2.2 watts. Range was still disappointing at 0.6 miles (city - granted - but my rino's do far better and they aren't digital!)
Next, I found that there are 5 channels Astro can use of which 2 of them are used by every jobcom radio in construction etc (154.57 and 154.600 are the worst and are in use all over the place) - my unit was on one of those channels which was almost always in use, so using another RF tool (spectrum analyzer) - I found a much better channel and suddenly the in city range went up to 1.5 miles which wasn't bad.
Mounting -
You get 2 mounting options - a screw bracket that will mount the transmitter to the dog collar which works really well, or a velcro pocket to put the transmitter in, strap it around the dog's breast and put a tab under the dog collar to keep it upright. I tried the vest option first and when the dog came back, the whole assembly was swinging around the dog's neck (and velcro fills up with hair if your dog sheds - the gripping effectiveness goes to zero).
The collar I thought would be better because the tags are always at the ground, but now the heavy part is up high. My guess was to put a lightweight fishing sinker in the dogtag strap which would keep it verticale - without that weight the dog comes back with the collar rotated sideways and the antenna horizontal, which hurts your range again.
Once factory adjusted to full power, put on a clean freqency, and mounted with a counterweight it works really well - 1.5 mile range in the city and 2.0 mile range or better in the country are not uncommon. I found my dog had gone on a 5 mile chase one time from the truck.
There is a problem in the few bits that garmin uses for "dog status" like "treed" or "quarry", etc - when the gps has moved a bit they are meaningless so I ignore that and leave it on the doggie detail page which tells you how far away your dog is, where it is, and the battery level/gps coverage in the dog's GPS, along with the radio signal you are getting. I would have preferred "moving" or "stable", which you can get from the map if the signal reaches.
You can get a nice VHF (marine type) antenna if you become car bound and unscrew the garmin antenna and connect the outdoor antenna which more than doubles range or better right away - great for end of the day searches for the dog. Both the dog and user antennas are SMA and removable unlike the rino which by law must have a permanently attached antenna unless you are good at soldering on external jacks yourself, which allows you big outdoor antennas and high power amplifiers on one radio. Dog transmitts at your programmed time interval, the handheld transmitts when only when you need to adjust the dog parameters, making it a 2way link temporarily on the AA batteries.
The GPS(s) in both the dog and handheld use the highly sensitve SIRF chipset (which is dirt cheap because the entire gps is in one chip, but because of the indoor usability of it garmin sees fit to charge almost 2x more e.g. the rino520HCX is also using the sirf chipset for gps, which costs them less!) - it trades sensitivity of getting a signal for accuracy compared to their old 12 channel receiver garmin made (like putting a ford engine in a corvette). Anyways they are very sensitive, the handheld allows you to load 2GB of map data on a micro-SD card like your cellphone uses so there are alot of nice features in the set, plus you can use the handheld without any dogs.) I've put highway and topographic mapping data for the western USA, along with the entire roads CD. I have GPS mapping in my car and garmin really has a poor algorythm on this one - it will insist you drive 5 miles backwards to get on the freeway, to drive 5 miles forwards to the destination 1/4 mile ahead. It's better for 4wd or marine navigation than on-road accidents. ON-Road navigation probably is a feature to avoid.
MY ONLY "STRONG" NEGATIVE is that they use 2-AA batteries in the GPS handheld. Worldwide there is a push away from disposable batteries due to price - countries like Germany and Switzerland charge more than the battery for a disposal fee - if you are caught putting them in the trash look for $500 fines. Most of europe has adopted this, hence the move to li-ion standards. I've been evaluating some 3000-3500 mah prototype AA cells in my lab from a battery company. The combination is really good - better in all cases than alkalines. I'm accustomed to the Li-ion cells on the Rino radios I use which last forever. Garmin could have fit some sort of Li-Ion pack into the battery area making it charge from both the dog charger (which is li-ion) and the dog's car-charger (included in the kit). But alas, we are stuck with kids' toys AA batteries.
The waterproofness will outlast any rainstorm and the worst weather - for both you and the dog. Overall, knowing what direction and how far my dog is is great information. I have not found any geo-fencing yet which would be nice to keep your dog out of problem areas on the map like traintracks or highways.
In summary you are getting 2 really sensitive GPS units (one rechargable and one AA powered) that communicate one way their location. To top off the system, Garmin gives you a nice hard case to seal it all up and keep the wet soggy stuff out of the dry stuff with a clever X strap holder on the outside of the case
Be sure to get it working good in the city before going on a hunt with it - you'll know what buttons shortcut to where, and what limitations are in the unit, and what the beeps decode to.
Happy Hunting!
 coon dog tracks October 21, 2007
12 out of 16 found this review helpful
I am learning more about this all the time.Every time I go hunting both units need a couple minutes to recognize each other[turn transmitter and gps on until the gps says dog is near] Do this before putting the transmitter on the dog-hold them both in your hands.then put the transmitter on the dog and it will work fine. I lost the rubber coating off the transmitter, garmin is supposed to send me a new one -I am using the other one with a piece of rubber hose on it with silicone caulk in the end .it works well-garmin wants my broken antenna - I will wait to see if they send me a new one first.
Review of purchase and use of garmin astro GPS dog tracking system January 7, 2008
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
The transaction was excellent...good price, quick delivery time. My husband was thrilled with his new "toy", and couldn't wait to try it out. He was very impressed with the details he was able to see when tracking his dogs in the area. However, upon the first real hunt with the unit, the dogs managed to disconnect and lose the antenna (which seems to be pretty wimpy!) and of course, the unit is useless without the antenna! When I placed a call to order a replacement, I was told that parts must come straight from the manufacturer. It was impossible to reach a person at the manufacturer, so I resorted to ordering a replacement antenna online which I did receive in time for the next hunt. We are now waiting on a reply to my husband's email (he also gave up on talking to a real person) to complain about the antenna and ask for the manufacturer to provide a free replacement b/c this is an expensive piece of equipment and if the antenna is that easily lost (which renders the unit useless), I anticipate that this will be an ongoing problem and become the gift "that keeps on giving!".
Now I know where my dog is! January 9, 2008
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
I don't hunt, but I hike with my dog. Being a bird dog, she instinctively runs far from me, and I was always afraid I wouldn't find her.
The Astro is very easy to use, which is great for a dog tracking novice like me. The compass screen points to where she is and how far away, and the map shows the routes we're both taking. There is a lot more information, like the distance she's traveled, her average speed and plenty of other things that I haven't figured out yet. Every time I use it I find something new. The best thing about it is that I don't worry if I don't see her. I love it!
The only problem I have had with it was a broken antenna, but it was easy and not too expensive to replace.
Garmin Astro GPS April 6, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Fantastic! I'm not a hunter, but I use the Garmin on my dogs when we go hiking. I've found the product to be very accurate. The construction of the product is very rugged. I'm glad I elected to use the shorter antenna because my dogs like to rough house. I'd be afraid they would damage the longer antena when rolling around. The piece of mind I have knowing that I can locate my dog should he chase after a rabit or deer is worth every penny to me.
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