Hey guys, I'm new to the board. I am looking a way to boost range on a hand held GPS tracking system. I made the post below over on the Handtalkies forum but haven't gotten any response. Maybe my post is better suited for this forum. I hope you guys can point me in the right direction.
thanks for your help and my original post is below:
Hey guys, I stumbled upon your forum and hope you can help....
I have a Garmin astro dog tracking system. This gps tracking unit replaces the old radio telemetry systems used for dog or animal tracking. I use this GPS tracking system for hunting with hounds at night. The hound wears a collar with a transmitter. The collar transmitts gps coordinates back the my handheld gps unit. The gps unit then displays the hound's location on a map.
Eough back background info. I am trying to increase the range of this system. Garmin states that the unit has a range of 7 miles, which is highly overstated. In reality, I get about 1.25 miles of distance before I start loosiing signal with the hound. I bought a cheap aftermarket folding telescopic antenna off ebay and it improved range to 1.5 miles.
Is there an amplifier on the market that could work? I know of a guy that has tried this, but I don't know where he got the amp from. On a hunting forum, I found a picture of a modded gps system that had an amp in between the handheld and the antenna. (pic is below)
I would love to get some feedback and advice from you experts.
Oh yeah, the transmitter is on the MURS band.
Thanks,
Chris P
