The cost of doing business for a Houndsman is so much more expensive than the average persons hobby. GPS equipment, collars, dog boxes, vet bills, constantly broken trucks - you name it, the list goes on. With the price of everything increasing these days, you’d think we would all learn to take better care of our stuff, but if you’re anything like me, that’s easier said than done, and one of the easiest things for me to misplace is my Alpha handheld.

Now I’d like to say I’ve only used this feature I am going to share with you once in the past, but so far that’s already not the case. I am sure by now you’ve seen the Alpha 200i, or at least have a friend, or a friend of a friend who owns one, but maybe you haven’t fully explored all of the features. One of my favorite features of the Alpha 200 is the fact that the InReach technology is built right into the handheld unit, and the days of having to carry around an Alpha and an InReach at the same time are done. For those of you that don’t know what an InReach is, the short of it is it’s a satellite communication device built by Garmin and with an active subscription it gives you the ability to send a text message from anywhere in the world with or without cell phone service. Now you might be telling yourself you don’t need another subscription and you aren’t one who always needs cell phone service, even if that’s the case, please continue reading a bit further. What if I told you that this active subscription could lead you back to your expensive new GPS that was left in the woods? Whether you set it on top of your dog box or snowmobile and drove away, or lost it in the bottom of a thick steep seemingly endless canyon, if your InReach is activated the odds of getting your Alpha back just got way better! This is especially true if you realize your Alpha is gone and the unit is still turned on.

So you’ve lost your Alpha, now what? Your first reaction will most likely be some colorful language followed by feelings of disappointment in yourself but don’t worry, it’s not a total loss just yet. Now if your InReach is not active, you had probably better start retracing your steps and hoping for the best, the odds aren’t always great. However if your InReach is active, it will only take a few moments, a few easy steps, and you’ll have a GPS location in no time!

The first thing you’re going to want to do is login to your InReach account at https://explore.garmin.com from here we can guide you through what to do next. Once you are logged in you will want to click on the drop down menu on the upper left corner, and then click on “Social”. From Social you will want to click on your “Map Share” link, which will bring you to a Garmin map page. Once you are on your Map Share page, in the top right hand corner you can click “Locate”. What this feature will do is it will ping your lost device, as soon as it has communication with satellites even if the device is turned off, and as soon as it’s turned on it will update a location of your device and give you an exact spot as to where your Alpha is sitting. Once you click locate it will then spend the next 5 days trying to locate your device, and if it’s not found you can go through this same process and try again to locate it.

I know for me personally this has been very helpful on more than one occasion, and has saved me from losing a very expensive piece of equipment. Although I use my InReach for messaging purposes quite regularly, I would still look at this as very cheap insurance for someone who just did not want to lose their new Alpha. Sooner or later we will all run into some sort of train wreck situation, it’s bound to happen, and sometimes taking steps in advance to help alleviate the potential problems is well worth the time and money.