Re: [working-gundog] Garmin & Canada > GSP Forum

Unanswered Active Topics

Forums Search

Forums > Mailing Lists > working-gundog

Subject: Re: [working-gundog] Garmin & Canada

Prev Next

You are not authorized to post a reply.

Author

Messages

craig

JH
Posts:27

06/30/2009 3:54 PM
I just spent a couple of hours wandering through a Kafka-esque maze of Candadian Government bureaucrats and other forms of plant life and I finally found someone who knew what he was talking about. Here is what I gathered from a very helpfull fellow at Industry Canada, the dept. charged with regulating these kinds of things. 1. The Garmin Astro is not approved for use in Canada. This is because... 2. The Garmin Astro uses the MURS band to transmit from the dog's collar to the hand-held reciever. Unlike in the US, the MURS band is not free to use in Canada. You need to buy a licence for a specific frequency on it. Anyone can get a licence for one of the five frequency as long as it does not interfere with others in the area. You just purchase a license from the Gov. and voila! You are good to go. Farmers, foresters, pizza delivery guys all over the place have licences for a frequency. So in theory, you could just buy a licence for the frequencies that the Astro uses and head to the field. But.... 3. The Astro is not approved for use in Canada. Garmin has not jumped through the hoops of submitting it for approval (yet?) since they know that they MURS band is not free up here and in order for them to get exclusive use of the frequencies for the unit, they would have to buy out a lot of folks to get them off the band...ie: $$$$$$ 4. You see, the Astro uses all 5 frequencies of the MURS: 151.82, 151.88, 151.94, 154.57, 154.60. I did a check on one of them (151.82) just to see how many others are on it (there is a search function on the website of Industry Canada where you can find out. See http://sd.ic.gc.ca/pls/engdoc_anon/web_search.frequency_input). It turns out that there are dozens of users. Everything from Government agencies (probably foresters) to some city of Toronto workers to farmers in Saskatchewan. So that means if you are using the Astro in the area of one of the users, you could interfere with their radios. 5. So there you have it. The reason is NOT some super secret Canadian Gov. frequency used to track drug lords and assorted terrorists. It is all about the $$$. Garmin would have bought out those channels in a heartbeat if they thought they could sell enough units up here to still make a profit. But alas, the accounting dept. told them "no way!".That is why they haven't even sent the unit up here to be tested and approved for use. Even if it passes all the approval tests (which it would, all other Garmin devises are approved), it still could not be used due to the frequency thing. But fear not! Apparently the Canadian Gov. is moving towards the same sort of set up as in the US, a free for all MURS band...soon, but not quite yet (it could be months, it could be years...who knows?) 6. So the bottom line is this. The Garmin Astro is not approved for use in Canada and does not have the licenses for the frequencies. But it probably will be good to go some day. So, if you bring one with you and use it in the field, will you be treated to a waterboarding session while government ninjas impound your car and bank account? No. The fellow at Industry Canada ( a really nice guy by the way) told me that their main objective is compliance, NOT punishment. If a guy does bring an Astro up here and it did interfere with farmer Brown's radio base station and tractor in the field, or with a hydro worker repairing a line, he may be asked to turn it off and stop interfereing with the frequency. No fines, no waterboarding. However, if he then continued to use it, despite the warning, he could face stiff penalties. But twenty grand and the loss of his car? Never. Unless his was following fire trucks in downtown Toronto and deliberately screwing with them as they tried to save a burning convent and orphanage, I doubt there would be anything more than a slap on the wrist. Of course, I'm just some guy on the net, your mileage may vary yada yada. On Tue, Jun 30, 2009 at 12:16 PM, Rugerheim <rugerheim@zianet.com> wrote: I am planning a hunting trip to Canada this fall and I was told that if you use a Garmin dog tracker in Canada that you are subject to confiscation of your unit and $20,000. in fines if you are caught using with one on your dog. Something to do with the Government of Canada using those protocals. Does anyone know anything about this on the list? tc Terry and Janet Chandler Rugerheim Kennels German Shorthaired Pointers Training/Puppies/Stud Service Las Cruces, NM 575-382-5231 rugerheim.com -- www.craigkoshykphoto.ca www.chiendog.blogspot.com

You are not authorized to post a reply.

Forums > Mailing Lists > working-gundog > Re: [working-gundog] Garmin & Canada

ActiveForums 3.7