Snowcamoman,
I think I may know why you are experiencing differences in range in the various remotes, and especially in the trees.
I spoke with Minaska Outdoors today, and asked them what frequency range their remotes operate on. They said it operates in the 416 MHz range as I recall, which is UHF. Traditionally, UHF will not perform well in pine forests, as the pine needles are basically a quarter wave length of the 416 MHz frequencies, and they absorb the RF energy. Thereby, restricting the distance in that type of environment.
If, FoxPro, Predator, or Wildlife Technologies, are using VHF frequencies to operate their remote capability, then they will penetrate the trees a lot better in that type of environment.
After reading your report, I had to rationalize in my mind why remotes of the same power as mandated by the FCC would outperform one another. That is why I asked the frequencies being used. Likewise, 900 MHz would penetrate the forests some degree better than UHF as well due to the different needle lengths compared to wave length of frequency.
I guess when it boils down to it though, all of the callers performed adequately for hunting purposes, and it is just a matter of other individual benefits of each caller as to which one a person would buy.
Thanks for all your hard work. You are truly putting the various units involved to test in adverse conditions. Something we all need to know for intelligent decision making.
Great work! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif
Bill /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-006.gif