Garmin Solutions the Name With Launch of Alpha 200i

When I’m at giant hound occasions and updating software program on Garmin merchandise, I typically hear folks say, when referring to their Alpha® 100, “How might you probably enhance this product? It’s the neatest thing ever invented for looking canine.”

Nicely, Garmin answered that query this month when it launched in the US the brand new Alpha® 200i.

I’ve been fortunate to get to make use of one for a number of months now, and I can let you know it will be tough to return to utilizing my Alpha 100.

Why?

How’s it higher? What’s improved? Is it price the additional cash?

Listed below are some ideas:

The Alpha 200i has a bigger display screen (3.5” versus the three” display screen on the Alpha 100), however I feel that sounds “deceptive.” If you set them subsequent to one another, the display screen on the 200i seems a lot bigger, at the least half once more the scale of the Alpha 100, and it actually looks as if that whereas out within the woods.
Crucial observe right here just isn’t solely is the display screen bigger, but it surely additionally could be very vivid and really readable on vivid, sunny days. Most people utilizing an Alpha 100 on a sunny day typically discover it difficult to learn the display screen. The Alpha 200i has a sunlight-readable capacitive touchscreen, which implies the brighter the daylight is exterior, the brighter and simpler it’s for the hunter to obviously see and browse it. For beaglers, squirrel and chicken canine fanciers, operating canine, huge recreation, hog canine males or anybody utilizing this through the daytime, it is a large enchancment.
If you on flip the 200i, it’s a lot simpler to make use of or perceive than the Alpha 100. Engineers name this “the consumer interface.”
Many hunters thought that every one the choices on the menu of the Alpha 100 may very well be complicated. There are fewer selections on the 200i, so icons like “Man Overboard,” whereas fashionable on marine merchandise however not so sensible for locating your canine, now don’t take up room on the menu web page of your canine monitoring machine. The icons that have been on the Alpha 100, which had nothing to do with monitoring or coaching of your canine are nonetheless accessible, however they don’t seem to be on the primary menu, making it simpler for a hunter to learn and navigate by means of the Alpha 200i.

The principle goal of Garmin’s Alpha product line is to simply hold monitor of and discover your canine. The Alpha 200i does a greater job of this than the Alpha 100 just because it’s simpler and fewer complicated to make use of.
The Alpha 200i is a significantly better coaching machine, or e-collar.
I don’t assume hound guys ever had an excessive amount of of a problem utilizing the Alpha 100 as an e-collar and coaching machine as a result of they predominantly used it for trash breaking and recall, utilizing the tone butto. Trainers with a number of canine, nevertheless, could have discovered it tough to rapidly change from canine to canine, and chicken canine males typically discovered it tough to rapidly change stim ranges and stim varieties.

The 200i rapidly modifications stimulation varieties and makes it simpler to rapidly change from canine to canine.
The power to obtain BirdsEye Satellite tv for pc Imagery on to the Alpha 200i makes it really easy to at all times be answerable for your navigation.
Just about everyone who makes use of BirdsEye loves it, and it comes included on all HuntView Plus map purchases. I extremely advocate HuntView for ease of use and the truth that, together with the satellite tv for pc imagery, it provides you property boundaries and landowner names.

For those who plan on downloading satellite tv for pc imagery wirelessly direct to the machine, you’ll nonetheless want to purchase a microSD card, ideally 16GB to 32GB, relying upon the quantity of land you wish to obtain. It’s a lot simpler for patrons to do that themselves on the Alpha 200i.
For those who hunt out west or in different areas of the nation the place there may be little or no telephone reception, otherwise you or your youngsters are touring in another country for any purpose — even that once-a-year fishing journey to Canada for trip — you may be assured in understanding that the Alpha 200i has Garmin’s inReach® expertise*. I’ll write a separate article on inReach quickly, however for now, know that it lets you have two-way world communication with household or pals by way of textual content messaging. If there could be any kind of emergency, you may as well immediately ship out an SOS or rescue sign informing emergency staff of your location. That is wonderful expertise.
There’s a month-to-month payment to make use of the inReach function.
For those who hunt with a number of completely different folks or teams of individuals, which is frequent with deer, hog, bear, and lion hunters, the Alpha 200i is a dream come true.
Just like the Alpha 100, the Alpha 200i lets you monitor 20 canine at a time, however the 200i handheld can retailer as much as 100 completely different collars. This implies each time you hunt with a special group you may merely change from one group to a different. You now not must delete the collars from one group of looking buddies after which take the time so as to add in extra collars.
Those that competitors hunt are going to like the brand new stopwatch function on this product, too. It not solely has a countdown function, it additionally has 4 extra separate timers that can be utilized to maintain time on the identical of the opposite canine in your forged or brace whereas at a Nite Hunt or area trial.