Ferret Locators, Family Planning and Polecat Chow

A rabbit hole in the U.K. is netted.

In Great Britain, rabbit hunting with ferrets has never been easier as this 1998 article from The Independent makes clear.

Within the last 10 years ... three innovations - one technical, one medical, and one nutritional - have radically transformed ferret-keeping in Britain.

The technical innovation is the invention of the electronic ferret locator. This is a device about the size of a box of cooking matches, which picks up signals from a tiny transmitter attached to the ferret's collar, thus enabling the ferreter to locate and dig out a working ferret should it "lie up".

In the past, the dreaded "lie up" was the bane of the ferreter's life. A lie up is when a ferret is put down a rabbit hole, and after running up and down for a bit, and perhaps killing and partially eating a rabbit, she simply curls up and goes to sleep. Like all carnivorous predators, ferrets are big sleepers, especially after a meal.

Before the invention of the locator, the ferreter faced with a laid-up ferret had several options - all of them incredibly time- consuming. One was to put his head as far down the rabbit hole as possible and try calling his ferret out. A potentially embarrassing method this, if attempted on or near a public right of way. Another was to paunch a rabbit and try to entice the ferret to the surface with the smell of rabbit's innards. And failing these, the ferreter had to nip home and get his nastiest, most anti-social hob ferret, tie a length of string to it, and send it down the hole to give the sleeping ferret a wake-up call.

And failing that, the ferreter had to sit there all night, or until the ferret decided to come out of its own accord. It has been argued that over the years the "lie up" has contributed more to the countryman's reputation for surliness than anything else.

But these days all a ferreter with pounds 69. 50 to spend on a ferret locator has to do is wave it about until it picks up the signal, turn the dial until he gets a depth reading in feet, then dig down to the ferret, trying not to decapitate it with the spade as he gets in close. No fuss, no mess, no time wasted. The improvement in the quality of life of the average locator-owning ferreter has been immeasurable. If, for example, a ferret lies up just as the ferreter is thinking about packing up for the day (normally enough to induce apoplexy in all but the most phlegmatic of ferreters in the bad old pre-locator days), with any luck our man can locate his ferret, dig it out, fold his nets, paunch his rabbits, whittle a stick, and still be back at the caravan in time for the first reading of the football results.

One might have imagined that new-fangled electrickery such as this would be slow to catch on with country people practising a hunting technique unchanged from that depicted by early medieval tapestries. Not so. Once they were in the shops, news of the ferret locators spread through country districts like myxomatosis. And elderly ferreters who had never before set foot inside a pet shop were queuing on the step to buy one. In no time at all, the popularity of the little-understood ferret locator made it the countryman's equivalent of the mobile phone.

The second innovation to revolutionise ferret-keeping was the perfection of a surgical technique for vasectomising hobs (male ferrets). One of the many curiosities of the ferret is that unless the jill (female) is served by a hob once she has come into season, she may die. (When a jill is in season, her vulva swells up like a football, so this should be fairly obvious, even to a novice ferret-keeper.)

In effect this meant that ferret jills were constantly producing litters, which needed to be fed, and if a litter came late in the year, the mother was temporarily unavailable for work. With two litters per year at, say, seven kittens per litter and a full-time ferreter only needing three or four hard-working ferrets, the majority of kits were surplus to requirement. Of course, rather than raise these unwanted litters, the normal practice was to knock the youngsters on the head - or "make sailors out of them", to use a country euphemism - maybe leaving two to suckle the milk.

But now that British veterinary practices are able and willing to vasectomise hob ferrets for as little as pounds 20 a time, everyone concerned is a lot better off than they were. The ferret-keeper's life has been simplified because he no longer has to anxiously study his jill's vaginas or commit infanticide; the jills are satis- fied; and once the vasectomised hob gets over the shock of the operation and finds himself being lent out all over the district, he can't believe his luck.

... The third, and in many ways the most crucial, advance in ferret welfare came four years ago, when a pet food company called James Wellbeloved began marketing a dry, "complete" ferret food. Ferrets require a high- protein diet, and this has meant that, in the past, ferret-keepers had to keep their charges supplied with meat, ideally in the form of paunched rabbits. But as ferrets will eat any meat, in any condition, no matter what the live animal has died of, they were given anything from butchers' offal to frozen day-old chicks to fallen livestock to long-dead road-casualty badgers. It wasn't that long ago that if you saw a car stopped in the middle of the road and the driver out and busily scraping a dead crow off the tarmac, you could put money on it that she or he was a ferret fancier trying to save themselves a few bob.

... Feeding decomposing flesh to ferrets is OK in the winter, but in summer the flies are terrible. On the whole, therefore, what with the imperative to feed ferrets on flesh, and the attendant flies, and the smells, and the reputation of the ferret as a psycho killer, ferret-keeping was never an attractive proposition for the squeamish, the fastidious, or anybody who wanted to remain on speaking terms with their immediate neighbours.

The advent of a dry, odourless, complete ferret food has changed everything. Suddenly ferrets are coming to live indoors as housepets. A damp draughty hutch as far away from the house as possible, with a week's droppings piled up in one corner, and a paunched rabbit slung in every once in a while, is now the exception rather than the rule.

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A Wildlife Transmitter Beats an Arrow In the Neck

Black-tailed Godwit

Remember, when we were kids and people said the birds "flew south" for the winter?

Well, believe it or not, that was about all we knew for a lot of species.

Birds disappeared flying south in the Fall and came back, flying north, in the Spring. Where these birds went, exactly, and what they did when they got there, was a bit of a mystery.

Beginning in the 16th Century or so, some bird owners (pigeon fanciers and falconers mostly) began banding or ringing the legs of select birds to establish ownership.

The first record of a metal band attached to a bird's leg was in 1595, when one of Henry IV's banded Peregrine Falcons was lost in pursuit of a bustard in France. It showed up the next day in Malta, 1,300 miles away!

In the early 19th Century, the world began to get a glimpse into the scope of avian winter migrations, thanks to an arrow in the neck. Atlas Obscura tells the story:

Until the 19th century, the sudden annual disappearance of white storks each fall had been a profound mystery to European bird-watchers. Aristotle thought the storks went into hibernation with the other disappearing avian species, perhaps at the bottom of the sea. According to some fanciful accounts, “flocks of swallows were allegedly seen congregating in marshes until their accumulated weight bent the reeds into the water, submerging the birds, which apparently then settled down for a long winter’s nap.” A 1703 pamphlet titled “An Essay toward the Probable Solution of this Question: Whence come the Stork and the Turtledove, the Crane, and the Swallow, when they Know and Observe the Appointed Time of their Coming,” argued that the disappearing birds flew to the moon for the winter.



On May 21, 1822, a stunning piece of evidence came to light, which suggested a less extra-terrestrial, if no less wondrous, solution to the quandary of the disappearing birds. A white stork, shot on the Bothmer Estate near Mecklenburg, was discovered with an 80 cm long Central African spear embedded in its neck. The stork had flown the entire migratory journey from its equatorial wintering grounds in this impaled state. The Arrow-Stork, or Pfeilstorch, can now be found, stuffed, in the Zoological Collection of the University of Rostock. It is not alone. Since 1822, some 25 separate cases of pfeilstorches have been recorded.

What happened next? Well, quite a lot.

The 19th Century was a period of explosive scientific discovery, and people began to move beyond simple banding to establish ownership, to banding as a method of tracking birds across time and space.

Among the first to step forward in the name of Science was John James Audubon, who attached small ringlets of silver wire to the legs of a brood of Phoebes near Philadelphia so he could firmly establish that birds raised in one area were the same ones who later returned to nest in that same area.

In 1899, Hans Mortensen, a Danish school teacher, took the idea of bird-banding one step farther, and began banding wild birds with metal rings that had his name and address on them. It was Mortensen that invented the system of bird banding we use today, though it should be said that it was the Smithsonian Institution, here in Washington, D.C., which really popularized bird-banding, and made it an avenue of mainstream scientific inquiry.

For about 100 years, bird banding was how we tracked bird migrations around the world, and to tell the truth, it was not that great a system.

In a world of billions of birds, only a small fraction-of-a-fraction were ever going to be banded, and most of these were ducks or geese which had an obvious economic value. Smaller birds of no obvious value were much less likely to get banded, and only those birds shot or netted ever had any hope of having their identifications seen, much less returned to the proper data-keeper.

The result: until only a decade or so ago, we still had a very imperfect knowledge of where birds went when they "flew south" for the winter, and we knew even less about where they stopped and fed along the way.

The good news is that in the 1990s, the process of electronic miniaturization progressed to the point that scientists could begin to put transmitters on really large birds like hawks and cranes, and data from those transmitters could be uploaded to satellites. Today, the science of miniaturization has progressed to the point that it's possible to put a transmitter on a hummingbird -- even a dragonfly -- although we still need an airplane or car to follow on behind the smallest of transmitters.

It is hard to overstate how important electronic tracking is to wildlife management and protection. A small story, however, might give a clue.

Three of the very first miniature electronic tracking transmitters capable of linking up to a satellite were attached to Swainson's hawks back in 1994. Within a few days, two of the transmitters conked out, but the transmitter on the third bird retained power and showed the hawk traveled from southern Canada down the American Midwest into Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, and past Ecuador into the Pampas region of Venezuela.

Scientists quickly scurried off to see if they could locate the animal.

What they found in Argentina was both amazing and disturbing.

The amazing part was that Swainson's hawks, which are solitary hunters in North America, assembled into large communal flocks of as many as 7,000 birds on their winter hunting grounds.

The disturbing part was that in Argentina Swainson's hawks lived on swarms of locust-like grasshoppers, which were being systematically poisoned by organo-phosphate pesticides.

The bug spray, in turn, was killing off the Swainson's hawks in droves.

As they drove into the area where the hawk's signal had last been heard from, scientists were alarmed to find thousands of hawks already dead under their roosts.

To make a long story short, that year 25 percent of all the Swainson's hawks in the world were killed by pesticides in Argentina -- a phenomenon that would never have been known had it not been for wildlife tracking telemetry.

The good news is that by switching to different types of pesticides, Argentina's farmers were able to sharply reduce grasshopper infestations while doing little serious harm to wildlife --a "win-win" for all sides.

As you might suspect, the brave new world of wildlife transmitters is still giving us a lot of new information, and great stories as well.

For example, one of fifteen Black-tailed Godwits released in the Friesland area of the Netherlands last Saturday arrived in Senegal in West Africa on Tuesday morning. The distance of 2,500 miles (4,000 kilometres), was covered by the bird in two days of nonstop flying.

Today, scientists are able to track bird populations around the globe, and load this information into graphics-based data bases so the general public can follow these epic migrations.

And it's not just birds that migrate, is it?

On every continent mammals, birds, fish and even insects migrate extraordinarily long distances.

It's not just Monarch butterflies that fly south for the winter for example -- it's a lot of dragonflies as well.

And it's not just herring and salmon that migrate out of oceans and up our rivers and streams -- it's perch and eels too. Out in the oceans, shark, tuna, whales, penguins, and sea turtles are swimming vast distances in never-ending seasonal circles, as they have for millions of years. On land we have long-distance migrations by caribou, bison, pronghorn antelope, elephant, wildebeest, and zebra.

How do the animals find their way? No one is quite sure.

No doubt there are a lot of factors that help guide them -- the position of the sun, wind, smell, temperature, sound, and visual landmarks, for starters. We know, for example, that when pigeons get closer to home, pigeons will actually follow roadways, same as you and I.

Migrations at night, when most birds fly really long distances, however, may be due to an internal magnetic compass that is hard-wired into the brain and working off of a bit of superoxide.

And it's not just birds that have this bit of electro-chemistry firing off in their brain -- bats do too.

And if bats (mammals) have electro-magnetic compasses in their brain, why not fish?

The main benefit of wildlife transmitters, of course, is that by tracking animals -- so many of which move about only at night -- we are better able to protect vital wildlife and ancient migration corridors.

That's a benefit for everyone -- the wildlife, hunters, and Mother Nature included.

On a more personal level, of course, the tremendous strides made in wildlife transmitters over the last two decades, have been an enormous benefit for those of us who engage in highly-skilled primitive hunting with dogs, hawks, falcons, and ferrets.

Yes, hawks and falcons are still lost rather routinely, but falconry transmitters and Yaggi locators offer some hope of recovery.

In the world of terriers and ferrets, the development of small low-frequency transmitters means long layups underground and long and dangerous digs are less frequent than they once were.

Even houndsmen and pet owners have benefited, thanks to tracking collars to serve their various needs.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Want to read another amazing bird migration story? Check out A Shearwater's Endless Summer from a March 2007 post to this blog.
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A Single Transmitter Made a World of Difference

Remember, when we were kids and people said that the birds "flew south" for the winter?

Well, believe it or not, that was about all we knew for a lot of species. Birds disappeared flying south in the Fall and came back, flying north, in the Spring. Where these birds went, exactly, and what they did when they got there, were a bit of a mystery.

All of that changed with the devopment of very small micro-transmitters capable of uploading information to satellites.

Three of the very first transmitters capable of being carried by a bird were attached to Swainson's hawks back in 1994. Within a few days, two of the transmitters conked out, but the transmitter on the third bird retained power and showed the hawk traveled from southern Canada down the American Midwest into Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, and past Ecuador into the Pampass region of Venezuela.

Scientists quickly scurried off to see if they could locate the animal.

What they found in Argentina was both amazing and disturbing.

The amazing part was the Swainson's hawks (which are solitary hunters in North America) assembled into large communal flocks of as many as 7,000 birds on their winter hunting grounds.

The scary part was that in Argentina Swainson's hawks lived on swarms of locust-like grasshoppers, which were being systematically poisoned by organo-phosphate pesticides.

The bug spray, in turn, was killing off the Swainson's hawks in droves.

As they drove into the area where the hawk's signal had last been heard from, the scientists were alarmed to find thousands of dead hawks already dead under their roosts.

To make a long story short, that year 25 percent of all the Swainson's hawks in the world were killed by pesticides in Argentina -- a phenomenon that would never have been known had it not been for wildlife tracking telemetry.

The good news is that by switching to different type of pesticides, Argentina's farmers were able to sharply reduce grasshopper infestations while doing little serious harm to wildlife --a "win-win" for all sides.

The two tracking transmitters at the top of this post are made by an outfit that specializes in micro-tramsitters for bats, birds and other wildlife . The very smallest of birds can now carry tracking trasmitters glued or harnessed onto their backs or tail feathers, with batteries providing power for 30 days or more.

The tiny collar, pictured at right, holds the even tinier dot-like transmitter next to it.

The transmitter pictured at the very top of this post is even smaller than the one at right, and is arrayed for a tail mount on a very small bird. This is a complete rig with battery, transmitter and aerial, believe it or not.

Either one of the two micro-transmitters shown have an above-ground trackable range of 1-2 kilometres. .

4 For more information on wildlife and terrier transmitters on this blog, click here.
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Simple Deben Collar Improvements

The two collars above show two very simple improvements you can make to your Deben Mark I collars to give them a longer life.

The first tip is to coat the outside of the collar with a slathering of rock-hard and tough-as-nails PC-7 epoxy. This is a two-part epoxy that is as thick as tar, but it will protect the collar from bites. More importantly, it will fill in all the little holes and bubbles that are commonly found in the Deben plastic and which are a source of moisture entry.

Deben collars normally have two small transistor wires that are barely coated by the normal plastic coating of the collar. When that coating is worn away, water enters the collar and oxidizes the internal circuits, which makes the collar go on the fritz.

Collars die because of water entry, and nothing is more important to the life of the collar -- and the life of your dog in the hunt field -- than keeping water out of the collar.

A second tip is to slip a very tight O-ring between the battery cap and the hard plastic body of the Deben transmitter. Both collars, above, have a black O-ring in place. O-rings can be purchased at any hardware store and cost only a dime or two, but they provide a fairly good seal right at the cap where it is most needed.

Use of an O-ring does NOT mean you do not have to tape your collar! In fact, proper taping of a collar is one of the most important things you do to secure your dog's safety and longevity.

Tape Deben collars well before you get into the field -- taping a collar while everyone else is waiting, dogs are barking, your fingers are numb from the cold, and your mind is half adled from excitement and the confusion of loading up is a guarantee of a job poorly done. Some tips on taping can be found >> here.

Test batteries before you put them into a collar, and test the collar and box before you let the dog enter the earth.

Deben collars are much less likely to fail on a dig if diggers take the precautions outlined above. A lot of Deben collar failure can be traced back to the failure of diggers to do everything obvious and possible to keep water out of the collar.
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The First Deben?

Tracking transmitters are not that hard to make. The schematic, above, is for an animal tracking transmitter that generates a pulsed continuous wave (CW).

The complete transmitter, including the battery, weighs only 8 to 10 grams (less than two nickels) and is only slightly larger than a man's thumb nail. The ground range is 3/8 to 1/2 mile with a good receiver and antenna system -- less if the antenna on the transmitter is reduce or eliminate and the receiver is a simple radio box (as is the Deben receiver)

This transmitter design is from the American Institute of Biological Sciences Bioinstrumentation Advisory Council information module M15 prepared by William W. Cochran, December 1, 1967.

It is hard to be sure, but I believe this is the "original" Deben collar. Here are the parts:

X = Crystal, type FM1. 3rd overtone for 145-160MHz, 5th overtone for 220 MHz

Q = Transistor, Amperex type A415 (original type specified). Others that can be used include NTE 107, MPS6507, and 2N3904.

R2 = 1500 ohm, 1/8 watt

R1 = between 80K and 600K, 1/8 watt. This resistor determines the "beep" rate and is effected by battery voltage and the transistor selected.

C1 = Subminiature 15 mmf capacitor

C2 = Subminiature .001 mf capacitor

C3 = 2mf subminature capacitor

ant = 12 inch

L1 = 12.5 to 13 turns of #36 enameled wire wound on a 1/8 inch form and removed.

L2 = 4.5 turns of #32 enameled wire wound on a 1/8 inch form and removed.

wire = wire used to provide capacity to the animal

B = Battery, mercury type, 1.5volt

A photocopy of the out-of-print original publication for the M15 Animal Tracking Transmitter can be had for $5 from: http://www.jbgizmo.com/page5.html All of the components can be had for about $15.

For anyone that wants to play with a ready-made bug or tracker, the folks at hobbytron.net sell a 3v FM bug transmitter for just $20 (picture below), while full instructions for building an FM tracker can be read at FM Tracking intructions from JB Gizmo at http://www.jbgizmo.com/page21.html

A Shearwater's Endless Summer

The first robins have arrived back north -- a sure sign of Spring on the horizon.

The first robins are always males, as they come before the females in order to establish territories. Like many birds, Robins eat bugs in the spring and summer, but they mostly live off of fruit in the winter.

The robins of Virginia and Maryland only fly as far South as Georgia or Florida, but thanks to new micro-transmitters, we now know that some birds are world-record holders in the migration department.

Sooty shearwaters have been electronically tracked flying across the entire Pacific Ocean in a figure-eight pattern while traveling a 40,000 mile (64,00 km) roundtrip migration.

For more information on the Tracking of Pacific Pelagics, see the terrific TOPP web site, which gives information on the tracking of sharks, whales, seals, birds, turtles, and fish as they roam the Pacific and beyond.

Whales, shark, tuna, seals, turtles, birds, and even insects migrate across and around the Atlantic and Indian oceans as well, and thanks to smaller and more power radio tranmitters we are learning more and more about how life is interconnected around the planet.

A study is going on right now to track the migration patterns of dragonflys as they migrate down the East Coast of the United States.

Though it is hard to believe, each dragonfly carries a small transmitter and battery that lets it transmit a signal for about a week, and though the signal only broadcasts about a mile, it is enough to give scientists data on where the dragonflys are going and where they stop along the way.
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It Ain't the Shoes

With only one bit of modern gear in a terrierman's kit, you would think debates over the relative merits of branded technology might be given a bit of a rest.

But you would be wrong. In terrier work, as with every other sport, some folke are obsessed with gear.

But guess what? Terrier work is not about the locator collar any more than basketball is about the shoes.

The simple truth is that 99.99 percent of the time, it hardly matters what brand of of locator collar you use. The old Mark I collar was not that hard to tape up and keep dry (I have never felt a need to change), and the new Deben LRT and Bellman and Flint systems are far beyond what most folks will ever need to keep their dogs safe. Let's be honest: the number of folks digging to 12 feet is vanishingly small, and the number of folks digging to 40 feet is smaller than the total population of red-headed eskimos in the world.

Whatever locator you chose, for whatever reason, remember the most important thing about terrier work: "It ain't about the shoes."

JRTCA Selling Deben LRT Collars and Boxes

The new Deben LRT box is at far right, the collar is in the middle of the three shown.


The JRTCA is now selling Deben Long Range Terrier Finders. These new collars and boxes work well and will locate a dog as much as 40ft away. The collar is fully waterproof, has a battery life of 350 hours and is switched on/off by a magnet in the hand held receiver - there's no reason to remove the batteries after each use. The transmitter is fitted with a top quality leather collar. The new LRT box and collar are sold for $300 box/collar set. >> To order

Leather Collar Replacement on Deben Mark I

I have been pretty good about maintaining the leather on my Deben collars (keeping them oiled and dry), and have never had a strap break until last weekend. It was bound to happen some time, though. I am happy to report that due to the fact I had some leather scraps in the garage, the cost of a replacement collar was just 89 cents for a small pack of copper split rivets from the local hardware store.

Replacing the leather on a Deben Mark I collar begins with cutting off the leather on each side of the locator, and then drilling out the leather that remains embedded in the plastic slot. Go slow, and it should come out easy enough. There is no reason to cut through the plastic slot -- just drill out the leather.

Once you have the leather off the locator, it's time to salvage the buckle and the two metal "safety rings" that were on your old Deben collar. The safety rings are the little bits of metal that hold the tongue of the collar down after it goes through the buckle. If you have lost these safety rings, you can make-do with a small slice of rubber tubing slipped up over the leather. The metal safety rings that came with your original Deben collar are far superior, however, and you will want to re-use these if you can. One of the metal pieces (the tie-out ring) looks a bit like a horse stirrup, and the other is a rectangular piece that does nothing but keep the leather tongue of the collar down after it goes through the buckle pin. The rectangular bit fits next to the buckle, and the tie-out stirrup fit farther back, between the two rivets.

Finding the right thickness and width of leather for your collar strap may require a small search. I was lucky -- a perfect leather strap was already on hand in a "farmer's bundle" of leather thongs and small scraps that I had acquired at the local hardware store a few years back. Most old-fashioned hardware stores will have a similar "farmers bundle" of leather scraps for sale. So too will most cobblers.

Trim the leather strap at least 6 inches longer than you will need it. Now slip one end of the strap through the buckle and fold over the leather to get an idea of where you will want to cut the slot for the buckle pin.

The slot for the buckle pin can be made by drilling two or three small holes right next to each other. If you need to, you can tidy up the slot with a hobby knife, but keep the cutting to an absolute minimum.

Next dry-fit the buckle with the leather folded over into a bite. The buckle pin should move pretty freely.

You now want to put on the two metal safety rings and see where they fit. The rectangular metal piece will be fitted in the same folded-over bight of leather that the buckle is in. A rivet will hold those two pieces next to each other.

The metal tie-out stirrup will go between the first rivet and the second rivet.

In truth, you should NEVER use a Deben collar as a tie-out collar; they are simply not made for that task. If you use a Deben collar as a tie-out collar, the leather WILL break. In fact that is exactly how this leather collar broke last week.

Once you know where all the pieces go on your new collar, you will need to drill two holes at the proper location for the rivets. Use a drill bit the same size as the rivet or a tiny bit smaller.

You will be drilling two holes which will each go through two pieces of leather, as the leather will be doubled over.

Once you have the holes drilled, fit all the pieces onto the collar as shown in the top picture. Remember, the rectangular metal piece will be in the same bight as the buckle, while the metal tie-out stirrup piece will be afixed between the two rivets.

In the picture on the top of this post, the leather tongue to the right of the buckle is the part that is folded over to afix the buckle and rings in place.

You are now ready to rivet the collar together. This is actually the easiest part, as it can be done with copper split rivets, which require no tools other than a hammer and a flat screw driver.

Take a small copper split rivet and push it through the double collar hole next to the buckle. The rounded copper head of the rivet should be on the outside of the collar, facing away from the dog. Use a flat screw driver to split the rivet wider, and then hammer the two rivet flanges over so they are pointed away from each other down the length of the collar. The two pieces of leather should be tight against each other and holding the buckle and rectangular safety ring in place.

Once the first rivet is afixed slip on the tie-out stirrup and afix the second copper rivet behind it.

To finish, trim the collar to length. Use a razor blade to cut a blunt point on the tongue end of the collar, and use a small drill bit to put holes in the collar to accept the buckle pin. The hole closest to the Deben transmitter should be the hole that fits the neck of your smallest dog.

The completed replacement collar is shown below.

Note that all of my Deben Mark I locators are coated with a thin layer of PC-7 epoxy in order to cover the wires that are very near the surface. If the thin plastic on a Deben Mark I collar wears away, water will get in the electronics, and the collar will fail permanently.

Along with the tough epoxy coating on the transmitter, also note the rubber O-ring between the cap and the body of the transmitter. This too is a small addition that will help keep your Deben Mark I collar running longer -- along with proper taping.

Finally, note the brass slide tag on the collar. This is a 3/4" slide tag (the smallest I could find at the time). It lies flush with the collar and, unlike a riveted tag, puts no unecessary holes in the collar. This tag will slide a bit under pressure, and though my dogs have been in hundreds and hundreds of very tight holes, they have never gotten hung up. Unlike a riveted collar tag, a slide tag can move from collar to collar. Put both a phone number and your name and address on the collar. A brass tag, unlike an aluminum tag, will not scratch easily.

For slide tags, see here (brass 1/2 and 3/4 inch) or here (brass 3/4 inch) or here (brass 3/4 inch). If you want to make your own collars entirely, small metal buckles can be bought at local craft shops

Meanwhile, Back in Slovakia ...

There is always a little variation, from place to place, in the world of terrier work. These pictures are from Matej in Slovakia. In the photo above, I believe he is shining a flashlight down the hole to see what is going on. This shot could be anywhere in the world.





And yet, it is always different, from one place to another, in one aspect or another. Matej has three or four types of terriers, including a working bedlington. Here a terrier is used to locate and bust a russian boar out of dense brush. We don't have those where I hunt!




Get along little piggies! This little terrier is moving a lot of pig. You have to have a dog with brains and some discretion in a situation like this.




Matej uses a Mammut Barriovox transmitter/receiver for his locating box, and an Ortovox transmitter on the dog (an Ortovox transmitter is pictured on a Bedlington, above). He says the range is 40 meters (about 120 feet) in digital mode, and 80 meters (about 240 feet) in analog (accoustic only) mode. He got his rig on ebay and says it works great. Friends in Germany are using the same rig and also say it works great. I think this collar rig is too large for our very tight earths over here in the U.S., however -- compare the size to a cell phone, below. Thanks to Matej for the great pictures!

Deben's New And Improved Collar

Deben has created a NEW long range terrier collar designed to work to over 40ft (12m) distance. The collar is fully WATERPROOF, has a battery life of over 350 hrs and is switched On / Off by a magnet located in the tip of the hand held receiver so there is no need to remove the batteries after each time of use. The transmitter is fitted with a top quality leather collar which can easily be replaced when worn.

A LED display on the receiver indicates distance from the terrier and a varying pitch sounder increases in pitch, as the receiver approaches the collar. In search mode the range is over 40ft (12m) and in the locate mode the working range is between 10ft (3.5m) and 8inc (20cm) for ultra-accurate, ‘close-in’ location.

The unique receiver circuit is designed both to detect the signal transmitted by the collar and to reject interference from elsewhere. The receiver has magnetic reed switches (no moving parts for improved reliability) which operate the on/off facility and a search/locate facility. Ultra-Efficient Electronic Circuitry means improved collar battery life of over 350 hours.

The compact designed collar fits neatly under the dog’s neck. (note – although all Mk3 receivers will work with the LRT collar, the calibration will not be correct. All MK 3 receivers have been fitted with a magnet at the tip for magnetic switch on/off)

A complete collar and box set is 195 British pounds or about $346 U.S. The collar and receiver alone are 97 and 98 pounds each, respectively. >> To order

Deben Mark III System

Deben has a new Mark III locator collar system which is set to replace the poorly received Mark II locator system which is being jettisoned after just one year. The old Mark I system is no longer being made.

The new Mark III system is getting good marks from experienced, no-nonsense ferreters. I have not tried the new Mark III system myself -- most of what I know has come from Simon Whitehead's posts about the new collar and box.

Though the new Mark III collar is listed on the Deben web site (see the ferret side of the web site) no picture is offered. As you can see from the picture above, however, the new Mark III system looks much like the Mark II system (LED lights, water-resistant receiver, nylon collar) but the collar buckle of the Mark III is gray.

Simon Whitehead reports that "The Mark III has every thing the Mark II didn’t" and that includes the fact that the new Mark III box will pick up the old Mark I collar signals (but not vice versa, apparently). This is a big deal in my book.

One of the complaints with the Mark II collars was that the collar batteries drained pretty quickly, but that problem seems to be fixed in the Mark III collar. The new collar is reported to have 300 hours of useful battery life. The battery life for the receiver is said to be 30 continuous hours of "on" time, which is quite a lot if you remember that we generally have the box on for not much more than 10 minutes at a hole.

One of the nice things about the new receiver box is that it can track more than one collar underground at a time -- a big use to ferreters, and not a bad thing to have with the dogs. The locating range on the new box is 16 feet -- a bit better than the old Mark I (15 feet), but not as good as the Mark II which claimed 20 feet. While the old Mark I was good at locating to within a foot, the new Mark III is reported to track to within 6 inches.

The new Mark III does away with the dial on the Mark I, and replaces it with LED lights and a very loud clicker which speeds up the closer you are to the dog. With the sound signal and the LED lights combined, finding the dog is said to be pretty intuitive.

So what's the downside? Reportedly locating with the new Mark III rig is a little bit slower than an experienced hand with a Mark I can do. In addition, the new rig is about $180 for a complete collar and box set, as compared to $125 for the previous Mark I incarnation.

In actual use, the new Mark III system operates much like the old Mark I, with slow passes over the top of the ground used to narrow down the location of the dog based on the signals from the LED lights, and the clicking coming from the box.

The new Mark III box receiver is more-or-less waterproof, unlike the old Mark I box, and the new system also produces a louder and more irritating sound. Louder is better as far as I am concerned -- the old Mark I rig was often hard to hear on windy days.

The bottom line is that, with just a few weeks testing to satisfy the skeptics, the new Deben Mark III rig seems to be an improvement over both of its predecessors, and the transmitter remains small enough to use in a tight earth.

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Update: The Mark III system is the kit being used by ferreters, but has proven too flimsy for terrier work. The Deben LRT or the Bellman and Flint collar and box sets are now the only thing recommended. For U.S. work, where pipe size is very tight, I like the Deben LRT, but different strokes for different folks.
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German Ortovox Terrier Locator System

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It turns out that using avalanche locators on working terriers is a bit "old hat" in Germany where the "Ortovox" transmitter (pictured above) has been used for some years and is available off-the-shelf and on the web if you know where to look (see "hundretter")

Ortovox Fox Dog Transitter and Receiver

"The Ortovox Earth Dog Transmitter is fastened on the dog's collar and sends a radio signal. The Orotvox Dog Receiver receives the signal. The shorter the distance between transmitter and receiver the louder the tone gets. With the rotary switch you can change the range and search area from 40m to 1m (43 yrds to 1 yard). Also, navigation is aided by three colored LED lights.

The compact Ortovox transmitter comes with a textile-collar into which the transmitter is tucked during earth work. Remeber, every minute counts should your dog get lost or stuck in the den of a fox or a burrow of a badger. With the D1 transmitter, a terrierman can safely and quickly locate his or her dog and rapidly dig it out. This way you spare your dog stress and unnecessary injury, and avoid possibly losing your precious companion. This light and robust transmitter is fastened at the dog's collar and it snuggles up close to the neck and therefore doesn't disturb the dog while it is working underground."

Click here >> To order from the German web site (The "box" used to pick up the Ortovox signal is pictured just below the collar).

Another place to order is >> here

The transmitter and box, combined, can be had for about 278 Euros or about $342 US. Please don't ask me about importing these things -- I'm sticking with my old Deben rigs for now.


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Fox Hunting at Night With a Yaggi

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The New York Times, July 28, 1981

FOXES TRACKED THROUGH THE NIGHT REVEAL A SURPRISING GROUP LIFE
By LOIS WINGERSON
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OXFORD, England: IT is nearly midnight and David Macdonald is out in Wytham Woods, as usual, fox hunting. He waits in his little blue van, one hand out the window aiming the antenna mounted on the roof. With the other, he adjusts the knobs of a radio receiver in his lap.

''There she is,'' he says suddenly as a series of intermittent tweets emerges from the hiss of the receiver. ''That's Old Mahogany, right where she should be, on the edge of that wood.'' Because the signal is unsteady and changes pitch, he can tell that the vixen is moving. He marks her position on a map, then drives on.

Mr. Macdonald spends nearly every night alone in this wood, keeping track of eight foxes that he captured here, fitted with radio transmitters set into collars and released. Each transmitter has a different frequency, so he can always tell Old Mahogany from Pintooth, and Bramble from Grizzle.

For the first time, thanks to electronic gadgetry, animal researchers are gaining the advantage over elusive, nocturnal animals such as foxes. Mr. Macdonald, a research fellow with Oxford University's Animal Behavior Research Group, is one of the first to use electronic technology to study the lives of individual foxes and their interaction with each other.

Many other studies, particularly in predator control, have concentrated on the movements of large populations of foxes. But Mr. Macdonald's more intimate findings are helping to rewrite the social history of the red fox, the most widely prevalent carnivore on the earth.

''There is a British and American folklore that says foxes are sly, solitary creatures that hunt alone and do not live in groups,'' Mr. Macdonald says. But years of tracking foxes and watching them with night-vision devices have helped him prove what he suspected all along: Given the opportunity, red foxes are gregarious animals that prefer to live in groups.

But they live in a surprising variety of social arrangements. In some places, such as the United States, foxes seem to live in monogamous pairs, according to most studies. There are also loners that fit the popular concept, traveling scores of miles in a night and trespassing on the territories of other foxes.



Stability of Fox Communities

But from the Arctic Circle to the deserts of Arabia, and from British farmland to dense city neighborhoods, Mr. Macdonald has also found foxes living in stable groups that have a hierarchy of their own. Some even cooperate in raising young and catching prey.

The diversity of fox societies, Mr. Macdonald believes, is directly related to the fact that foxes occupy a wide variety of habitats around the world. A better understanding of this diversity, he thinks, could lead to much better control of rabies because in many areas, particularly Europe and some parts of North America, the red fox is one of the most prevalent carriers of the disease. Mr. Macdonald is chairman of a World Health Organization committee on foxes and rabies.

''His research is very important to understanding the epidemiology of rabies and our ability to control it,'' says Dr. William G. Winkler, an epidemiologist with the national Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta. ''It is particularly important to our efforts to develop an oral vaccine against rabies, an effort which is very active in the United States.''

(Experts say that a successful effort to vaccinate foxes against rabies would be much more effective than killing the infected ones because the strategy should make entire fox communities immune.)


Rabies Eradicated in Britain

Mr. Macdonald has one great advantage over fox researchers in other areas: rabies has been eradicated in the British Isles. Thus he can laugh when recalling the time he tumbled down a hillside, embracing a wild fox he wanted to tag. Mr. Macdonald might well need to worry about being bitten but never about catching the disease he hopes to help eradicate in other countries.

At the age of 5, he wrote a school report detailing how to track red foxes across sand traps on golf courses. And for all the electronics, much of his work still involves the skills of the natural scientist.

''If anything has revolutionized the field of biology, it has been radio tracking,'' Mr. Macdonald says. ''But all the gadgetry in the world will not help if you don't pay attention to the wind direction and whether the ground is moist enough to bring out the worms the foxes eat.''

To some extent, the hours spent fox-watching only provide the questions that need to be asked. Many of the answers have come from the small group of foxes Mr. Macdonald has raised in a large enclosure. They have helped him establish that when a fox hides or caches his prey, it is able to remember and retrieve the food, and that one fox is unlikely to find another's cache by accident. The captive foxes have also helped him define the hierarchies in fox families.



Captured Foxes Provide Answers

By studying two groups of captive foxes, Mr. Macdonald was able to verify that a dominant male generally ignores all but one vixen in his group. But the nonbreeding females provide food, grooming and protection for any cubs that are born.

This year Mr. Macdonald has been concentrating on several groups of foxes living in the rural environs of Wytham Wood, a few miles outside of Oxford. He and his team have spent most of the year observing at night the eight foxes he tagged and named in the area. Each member of the team, working alone, tracks several groups of foxes at once. By their nature, the experiments take years to complete.

Often what Mr. Macdonald does is a matter of just sitting: sitting in his van or driving about the rutted lanes of the wood, his ear cocked to pick out the ghostly bleeps that represent foxes from static and car noise. The signals often bounce off trees and fences to give a completely false impression, and he may need to take readings from several different locations to make sense of the signals.

On other nights, Mr. Macdonald may sit for hours downwind of a spot that he knows is frequented by foxes, peering through either infrared binoculars or an image intensifier, a device that amplifies dim light, and simply waiting for foxes to come around. The yield is low: He only sees foxes about one of every three times, and then for only about 5 percent of the time he spends waiting. But he says the result is worth months of radio tracking since he may have the chance to see foxes courting or fighting.



'A Whole Different World'

The object of this year's effort is to compare the foxes living in Wytham Woods with the urban foxes living a few miles away near Botley Road, a wide suburban street of two-family houses and small stores. ''When you move from this area to that,'' Mr. Macdonald says, ''it's a whole different world from the fox point of view -different-sized territories, different food, different group sizes.''

Great Britain is covered with such different fox worlds, territories clearly defined and jealously guarded. Though several fox groups may occupy the same home range - the same farmland area or the same suburb -and invade each other's territory every night, Mr. Macdonald has found that the home ranges themselves never overlap. A city fox is not a country fox; and almost every aspect of their society is different.

Territory size has been found to range from about 20 acres to several thousand. The smallest territories occur in the suburbs, and the largest ones on places like the moors of Cumbria. The number of animals per territory also varies widely, from two to three in the suburbs to five or six on agricultural land.

But under normal circumstances, what makes the difference? Mr. Macdonald thinks the answer is in the abundance and distribution of food.



Food a Factor in Behavior

In the suburbs, for instance, where different people put out bird seed and the rubbish on different nights, a pair of foxes may need an entire block to be sure of ample food, and may have to live in pairs because the food supply is not abundant. In agricultural areas, on the other hand, the supply of food and prey may be so reliable that a dominant male can afford to support several ''servant'' vixens as well as his mate.

By watching enough foxes in different home ranges for enough time, Mr. Macdonald hopes, scientists may eventually learn enough to predict what kinds of groups foxes are living in by simply using a description of their habitat.

It seems a peculiar, solitary sort of science, this matter of sitting about in meadows, listening to bleeps that represent unseen foxes. Despite the electronic sophistication of radio tracking, he says, study methods are still inadequate. ''The biggest problem with his kind of experiment,'' he says, ''is that it is labor-intensive. It could take one biologist all his time to track one fox, and we simply don't have enough biologists for that.''

Review of New Bellman & Flint Locator

The following review of the new Bellman and Flint collar system is posted on their web site. The Bellmand and Flint system includes a collar transmitting at the same 457 Khz as a standard avalanche rescue system, coupled with an unmodified Pieps locator box.

Results of Testing the New
Bellman & Flint Terrier Location System.
Article in The Countryman's Weekly, March 24, 2005
by Gary Morgan, professional Terrierman for The Vale of Aylesbury Foxhounds

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Over the years of working terriers, the locators in my opinion have got worse, and I think that a lot of people reading this will agree.

It had got to a stage when I personally was getting through a dozen collars and three or four boxes per season.

In September 2004 I was asked by Bellman and Flint to test the new collar and box that they had developed for locating terriers underground. I was very pleased to do this, as it would be good news to have a new system. Something that I hoped would prove to be better and more reliable.

When I was first handed the new system I was surprised at the size of the transmitter on the collar but the more I thought about the size the less worried I became, believing that if a dog's head and neck will not get through the tubes, then there is no chance of the dog's chest getting through. Looking at the collar, the transmitter looked very tough and robust. The collar itself is much better for being changed from traditional leather to a plastic nylon which will not rot and has a breaking strain that you can pull a car with.

The transmitter itself I was really impressed with because it has a magnetic switch which enables the collar to be turned on and off when needed just by swiping a magnet over it. It also has two flashing lights one green, one red. When the green light flashes you know the collar is switched on. With a new battery, you'll have approximately 100 hours continuous use starting with the green light flashing, and then flashing green and red, and finally when it flashes red alone you know you have approximately 20 hours use remaining. I personally would not risk entering a dog underground when the collar was flashing only red.

Another feature that the transmitter has is a waterproof O-ring seal which enables the collar to work in wet conditions and after being used can simply be scrubbed clean under the tap in the sink.

The locator box is also waterproof, digital and made out of hard plastic. It has backlights which allows the box to be used at night. The box tells you how much life is remaining in its batteries. It has a feature of arrows which when used correctly allows you to walk in a straight line to the dog, rather than searching every part of the earth. When the box and collar is being used it has a range of 65 metres, so if you stood in the middle of the earth there would not be many earths in the whole of the country that would go off this system.

The first day that we tested the system, we fitted two collars to the dog. One was the new Bellman and Flint the other being Deben. The dog was entered and allowed to settle for some time. We located the dog with the Bellman and Flint system and could not believe the depth that the box was showing was 3 metres (approximately 9' ). We double checked the depth with the Deben box which also said 9' ( approximately 3m ). Looking at the earth, it did not look to run more than 3 or 4 foot. Because of the depth, the dog was left some time in case he moved, he didn't so we started digging.

When we were approximately a foot and a half from the dog who had not been heard for some time we decided to pinpoint the dog's exact position. We had conflicting readings from the two boxes.

When we eventually broke through to the dog to conclude the dig, the Bellman and Flint system was the most accurate, being right on top of the dog. The Deben box was each side of the dog, but not on top.

The second dig we had the same day was in a very big earth which at one time had a lot of elder trees standing. Because this was a shooting estate the gamekeeper had tried to make an extra drive and decided to lay the elder and the whole covert and earth was covered in nettles which was going to make searching for the dog very unpleasant. A fresh dog was fitted with both collars again and allowed to enter any hole, we then decided to have something to eat and drink while letting the dog find and settle. After many discussions about who was going to look for the dog the B and F box was turned on and the digital readout read 47 metres (approximately 160 feet). Because this box is equipped with directional arrows, when the main arrow is pointing forwards this enables you to walk in a straight line to where the dog is. This was done, and we pinpointed where the dog was, again at a depth of 2.5 metres ( 8 to 9' foot ). The dog again was allowed to settle for some time before we started digging. A couple of hours later the dig was ended successfully. On this particular dig I was very impressed with the B and F system, because of the way it took us straight to the dog and where the dog had settled it would have been the last place you would have expected him to be. Finding the dog in this vast earth with the elder and the nettles could have taken you a couple of hours with the Deben system.

Since starting to use the new system, I have probably worked my terriers on two hundred occasions what with bolting foxes out of straw bale stacks, drains and earths. I have only changed the collar and box batteries once each. The collar transmitter casing has stood up very well to the punishment and is not showing any wear at all. This system has never let me down once, and it has come to the assistance of a neighboring terrier man who had got into some difficulty after two Deben collars failed in one particular earth.

I was not the only person to be testing this system, D. Finlay who is a full time terrier man and who does a great deal of digging tested for B and F and is still using the system today and he agrees with me that it is a revolution from the old system, being very reliable, much tougher and more accurate.

This is a well-written review and sounds quite fair. I would note, however, that one of the principals in Bellman and Flint is the joint Master of the Vale of Aylesbury Fox hounds by whom the reviewer is employed as a terrierman -- a fact that I think should have been disclosed.

Bellman and Flint Locator Now for Sale

The new terrier locator system from Bellman and Flint is now for sale. The collar is pictured above, and it is very large: 3" by 1.5" by 1.5". The handout from Bellman and Flint says "The Transmitter Collar sits comfortably on the side of the dog’s neck." Hard to know how it stays in that location without the collar being very tight.

The system is expensive: 287 pounds UK or about $500 U.S.

As noted before, this rig does not appear to be a new invention: it is simply the newest and most expensive Pieps avalanche locator box with a Pieps Powder Puff transmitter afixed to the dog's collar.

A working Pieps rig can be had for about $250 by simply buying a Powder Puff transmitter (about $75) and the older Pieps model for about $175. For more on this, see >> HERE An altnerative is to buy a new Pieps box off of Ebay for about $100 more. This will save you about $150 over the Bellman and Flint Pieps rig..

To order the Pieps rig from Bellman and Flint, see >> HERE

Terriers and Avalanche Technology

Avalanche transmitter technology has been around since the 1970s with very little core improvement other than cost reduction.

The main change in recent years has been the rise of digital receivers with little arrows and LED read- outs which make operation of these systems more user-friendly for those who rarely use them.

Though many of the receivers are now digital, the signals are still analog, and they all operate on the same frequency (457 Khz) which means any avalanche transmitter can work with any avalanche receiver, regardless of manufacturer.

The 457 Khz frequency is an international standard that was put aside for rescue devices in 1968. This relatively low frequency (just below the AM dial on a radio) was chosen for rescue work because the signal is relatively unobstructed by walls, concrete, snow, ground, and human bodies, etc.

The new Bellman and Flint terrier telemetry rig, which uses an avalanche receiver and 457 Khz transmitter is going to sell for over $500 -- twice the cost of the new Deben system which, in turn, is twice the cost of the old Deben system.

Bellman and Flint seem to be using an unmodified Pieps DSP (digital signal processing) box as their locator. These locators are made in Austria, and sell for about $350 retail.

The chief advantage of the Pieps DSP box for avalanche rescue is that it can locate multiple burials at once -- a common problem with avalanches, but a rare problem with terriers underground.

An alternative to the $350 Pieps receiver shown above is the 457 Opti 4 Pieps receiver shown below, which costs just $160, and seems to do everything we actually need in the dog world -- and a little bit more. I am unclear as to why this receiver was not selected by Bellman and Flint, or why it should not be selected by others now.

The Pieps 457 Opti 4 has a battery reserve indicator, optical display with 4 LED's, a range of 60 to 70 meters (180 to 200 feet), precision localization to approximately 30 cm (11 inches), volume control with distance marking, built-in speaker, an earphone jack, and a 5-Year Warranty. Like all avalanche locators it will pick up a 457 Khz transmitter signal.

What about the collar?

Several companies make 457 Khz transmitters, and one of these was apparently modified into a collar-locator by Bellman and Flint. A picture of the Bellman and Flint collar is not shown on their web site, but they admit it is bigger than the transmitter used by Deben.

One 457 Khz avalanche transmitter already being used for dogs is the Ortovox Military D1 Transmitter, which has a 30 meter range, and is pictured below. This transmitter comes with a small slit in the back through which to thread a dog collar. It is for sale at Backcountry.com for $85.

Pieps also sells a small 457 Khz transmitter. It's called a Pieps Powder Peep Beacon and is sold separately for about $75. This may be what Bellman and Flint have modified with a magnetic switch (like Merlin hawk locators have), but it's hard to know without seeing a collar.

What about electrical interference from overhead power lines? The Bellman and Flint site does not say their collars are immune to power line interference, but all the avalanche locators seem to be somewhat resistant.

That said, as one avalanche box manufacturer notes, "Irregular readings can be caused by . . . power lines, electrical storms, and electrical generating equipment." Perhaps this is why no claims of resistance to electrical interference are mentioned on the Bellman and Flint web site.

The Cost of New Locator Collars!

Bellman and Flint are about to come out with a new terrier locator collar that they say "incorporates revolutionary, state of the art features specifically for the location of terriers."

Summary: A single locator box can track more than one collar underground at once, can locate above ground for over 190 feet, and can locate underground to a depth of 50 feet. The collar battery is larger than the deben locator collar and is acticated with a magnetic switch.

Price: The cost for U.S. residents is approximately £250.00 plus £45.00 shipping by FedEx, or about $570 U.S. This is more than TWICE the cost of new "Mark II" terrier collar from Deben (£127 pounds or about $250), and the new Mark II Deben collar is, in turn, about TWICE the cost of the old deben box ($125 for a complete set) For residents of Europeran Union Countries the cost of the Bellman and Flint rig is approximately £280.00 plus VAT plus postage for one collar and one receiver. No word yet on what an extra collar costs.

Availability: The product is currently undergoing extensive testing and will only be available to purchase direct from Bellman and Flint by mail order and at trade stands, from mid January 2005. Details on this website.

After Sales: Bellman and Flint will provide technical advice and full after-sales service.

Range: Maximum depth - Approximately 15m ( 50'). Depending on soil conditions. Maximum Distance - Approximately 60m (198').Example: Dog is 3m ( 9’ ) to ground and the receiver is approximately 50m (165’) from the mark. Screen will show 50m and a directional arrow.

Transmit field: The signal can be received from any direction, ie: above, below or from the side. Transmit field strength is constant over the entire battery lifetime.

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COLLAR SPECIFICIATIONS

Specification: Frequency: 457khz. To +20 degrees celsius. Transmit power:1.8 mA / m.

Battery Type: CR2 3V Lithium photo battery. High performance in extreme temperatures: - 20 degrees Celsius to +60 degrees Celsius. Readily available.

Battery life: 90 hours on constantly. Over 90 hours when used in intervals of 2 –6 hours. Times are approximate and may vary depending on battery manufacturer.

Switch: Internal magnetic On / Off switch. Allows the transmitter collar to be turned on and off without removing the battery. Hand held swipe magnet supplied. The battery will not discharge when the transmitter is turned off.

Battery Change: Four screws open the casing to allow access to the battery.

LED: 2 LED Lights ( green and red ). Visible through the casing. Flashing Green light indicates that the collar is on and transmitting. Red and Green together indicates 20 hours of battery life remaining. Red alone indicates approximately 10 hours remaining. ( Change battery ).

Casing: Industrial Polycarbonate. Ergonomically designed to minimise snagging and holding by the quarry. Bite resistant in normal use. Shockproof and waterproof. With integral loop for the dog collar. Size at largest points: 3" x 1.5" x 1.5". This is larger than the Deben system, but has huge benefits in terms of signal strength and distance, as well as vastly increased battery life. It has been used on the smallest Jack Russell to the largest Lakeland in digging situations without noticeably impeding the dog.

Collar: 3/4 ” Biothane nylon encased collar. Extremely robust. Bright red for visibility. Solid brass buckle and keeper, copper riveted for strength.

Parts: All parts are guaranteed and can be purchased separately.This includes: Casing, collar, transmitter, magnet, stainless steel screws, and the waterproof seal.

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RECEIVER BOX SPECIFICATIONS.

The Pieps DSP receiver has been recently developed using state of the art technology for the location and rescue of avalanche and landslide victims. The design of the receiver, its ease of use in stressful conditions, and the manufacturing quality are of the highest standards because it is a life saving device. Bellman and Flint have chosen the Pieps DSP to use with our specially designed collar transmitter due to its revolutionary specifications. The device is enhanced with the latest DSP technology ( = signal processing with a digital signal processor ). It is the only unit currently available which incorporates three antennas, enabling triangulation of the transmitter collar signal. This gives incredible accuracy of distance and depth.

Maximum Range: 60 metres, 195’ ( digital evaluation ).

Transmission Frequency: 457 khz ( international standard frequency ).

Power Supply: 3 batteries, alkaline ( AAA ). IEC-LR03, 1.5 volt. Readily available.

Battery lifetime: Minimum 200 hours in Send mode. Screen shows remaining battery life percentage.

Temperature Range: - 20 degrees Celsius to + 45 degrees. Weight: 198g ( including batteries ).

Dimensions ( LxWxH ): 116 x 75 x 27mm

Battery change: One screw opens battery housing.

Screen & Accoustics: Shows distance in digital figures from 60m to 10cm. Only available in metric. To convert to feet multiply by 3 or read as yards. eg: 3m = 9' or 3 yards. Five arrows indicate the direction of the transmitter collar. ( Straight on, Left & Right ). Automatic backlighting in poor light conditions. An Acoustic beeper changes frequency between 2m and 10cm. Symbol on screen indicates if more than one collar is activated.

Casing: Brightly coloured for visibility. Shockproof and waterproof. Supplied with a nylon case and belt loop. 5 year guarantee.