I swapped out the old 9-volt battery in my Deben locator box for a new new one tonight. I do this once a at year about this time.
Notice the tape up over the side of the battery and outside the box to pin the battery hard to the box side -- a loose battery is not your friend, even if improves sales for Deben!
I also coat my collars with hard epoxy and add an o-ring at the cap because Deben also makes the collars to short out and break long before their time. It's not hard to heavy it all up and make it as it should have been coming out of the factory.
For those who wonder (both of you!) this is what the inside of an old Mark 1 Deben locator box receiver looks like. They have not made these for at least 10 years or so, but I'm old school and make no apologies about it.
This box and the locator collars that goes with it were actually designed in the United States in 1967. I have the schematic.
With the rise of printed circuits, I think these things could be made much smaller and cheaper, but it's a pretty small market and why price it cheaply when people will pay a bundle?
I've got 4 working collars and two working boxes. I think I have two busted collars. Ive been meaning to autopsy them, but I've never gotten around to it.
The new Deben LRT is pretty good, but the price went through the roof for a very modest improvement. I bought two extra collars and an extra box after they introduced the new kit, expecting that to happen. It was not an investment, but a gamble, but I still think I won the bet.
I now have an avalanche locator as well -- an old Ortovox system that was gifted to me. It looks very good, and I will try it out this winter.
There is the NEW GPS telemetry for falconers by Marshall. It is creating a huge buzz in the falconry community. We are getting real time flight speeds, climbing rates, stoop speeds, etc of our birds. Now for me the price is just out of reach at this time. 900 for the transmitter. Works with IOS at this time. But a HUGE advance in raptor tracking for falconers.
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