UkPigeonRacing

Tested out one of those cheap GPS Trackers!

What exact gps tracker / Rings did you use? Ive been tempted to give this a try

Spieker-Loft wrote: Tue Sep 16, 2025 9:57 pm What exact gps tracker / Rings did you use? Ive been tempted to give this a try

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/365760180032

These are the ones I got, not fully sure quite how they work, seems as though they bounce of nearby phones similar to Apple Air tags, but from what I seen works quite well!

Hi Winfort, Love the little vid you did of the tracker. I must say how nice it is to put an actual face to an avatar.
I am really interested in the tracking devices but am a little bit of a techno-phobe. I dont have a clue when you start tslking about "air tags" and stuff.
In any case, I am not really interested in how these things work but more about what they can do and where the limitations are.
For instance, (I'm guessing that you havent got the bird back with the tracker on it) so would you be able to pin-point the last known position of the tracker to a degree that you could go along to find it and maybe establish why the bird never made it home?
Do these trackers have that capability?

Hi,
Can you have the birds ets ring still on its leg and the tracker, or is the tracker to large for that.

Diamond Dave wrote: Wed Sep 17, 2025 11:32 am Hi Winfort, Love the little vid you did of the tracker. I must say how nice it is to put an actual face to an avatar.
I am really interested in the tracking devices but am a little bit of a techno-phobe. I dont have a clue when you start tslking about "air tags" and stuff.
In any case, I am not really interested in how these things work but more about what they can do and where the limitations are.
For instance, (I'm guessing that you havent got the bird back with the tracker on it) so would you be able to pin-point the last known position of the tracker to a degree that you could go along to find it and maybe establish why the bird never made it home?
Do these trackers have that capability?

Hi Dave I believe these are real time trackers. I've never understood why anybody would want to use them. If you were racing from Barcelona would you want to know if your bird was sat on a house on route? And knowing this, what could you do about it?
Others have said they can help with training. My question would be how? Knowing which route a bird takes when homing helps you how? There's NOTHING you can do to make it take a different route.

king wrote: Wed Sep 17, 2025 4:18 pm

Diamond Dave wrote: Wed Sep 17, 2025 11:32 am Hi Winfort, Love the little vid you did of the tracker. I must say how nice it is to put an actual face to an avatar.
I am really interested in the tracking devices but am a little bit of a techno-phobe. I dont have a clue when you start tslking about "air tags" and stuff.
In any case, I am not really interested in how these things work but more about what they can do and where the limitations are.
For instance, (I'm guessing that you havent got the bird back with the tracker on it) so would you be able to pin-point the last known position of the tracker to a degree that you could go along to find it and maybe establish why the bird never made it home?
Do these trackers have that capability?

Hi Dave I believe these are real time trackers. I've never understood why anybody would want to use them. If you were racing from Barcelona would you want to know if your bird was sat on a house on route? And knowing this, what could you do about it?
Others have said they can help with training. My question would be how? Knowing which route a bird takes when homing helps you how? There's NOTHING you can do to make it take a different route.

Funnily enough, my brother had one of these trackers in the same race, we knew the bird was in his village (one road) a good 5 mins before the bird eventually clocked. As you say, if this has been his first bird home, that would have been more than a little frustrating to see!!

Hi Dave I believe these are real time trackers. I've never understood why anybody would want to use them. If you were racing from Barcelona would you want to know if your bird was sat on a house on route? And knowing this, what could you do about it?
Others have said they can help with training. My question would be how? Knowing which route a bird takes when homing helps you how? There's NOTHING you can do to make it take a different route.
[/quote]

I dont know where the limitations of the "real time"
element lies King but still think this version may have a place in young bird racing - at least.
It could determine if birds are involved in a smash and which direction they go.
It could determine if they are taken by a hawk.
It could determine if the birds go offline or get lost even if it cant tell you why.
I agree that it cant change anything but it could tell us more about what happens to the birds en-route.

Diamond Dave wrote: Wed Sep 17, 2025 11:32 am Hi Winfort, Love the little vid you did of the tracker. I must say how nice it is to put an actual face to an avatar.
I am really interested in the tracking devices but am a little bit of a techno-phobe. I dont have a clue when you start tslking about "air tags" and stuff.
In any case, I am not really interested in how these things work but more about what they can do and where the limitations are.
For instance, (I'm guessing that you havent got the bird back with the tracker on it) so would you be able to pin-point the last known position of the tracker to a degree that you could go along to find it and maybe establish why the bird never made it home?
Do these trackers have that capability?

So my comparison to the Air Tags, in simple terms an Air Tag is a small device that you can put in a wallet or in your keys, this will sort of broadcast it's location to the nearest mobile device. The mobile device will then let the server know where that location is, and you will then be able to see the location via your own device.

This works in a very similar way from what I have worked out. I have been to look for the bird, but having said that the accuracy is approximate to within 180m. Which as it turns out when trekking through dense woodland is quite a vast area!!

It was also rather windy on the morning I went looking, and I had a couple of near misses with some falling branches so I did retreat after about two hours looking!

Having said that, I do plan to go back again tomorrow to have another look as I am still getting pings from that area!!

Johnbee wrote: Wed Sep 17, 2025 2:10 pm Hi,
Can you have the birds ets ring still on its leg and the tracker, or is the tracker to large for that.

I had it on the leg with the life ring, as I had the ETS and a phone number ring on the same leg!

Here's a picture from when it was in the race crate, just before liberation!

i shall give this a watch tomorrow