1. Hunters & collars
Enter each hunter's dogs and their current ID (like 2-7). Leave the ID blank if it doesn't have one yet. Check Lock for a collar that must stay put, or Lock all for a hunter whose collars you can't change. Set a collar to Inactive to keep it on the list but leave it out of the interference planning.
One collar per line, straight from Excel or a text list: Tracey-1 1-0 02816 (collar, ID, track code) or Hunter, ID, lock, inactive. Everything after the name is optional. Add "lock" to lock a collar, or "inactive"/"off" to mark it inactive. "Tracey-3" goes to hunter Tracey as collar #3, and pasting the same collar again updates it instead of adding a duplicate. You can also use Open file in the menu for a .csv or .txt list.
Results
Add hunters and collars, then press Build layout.
Hunters in the same group get no shared ID numbers across all their dogs, so any one of them can track the whole group on a single handheld. Example: put yourself with Persons 1, 2 and 3 at High. Higher-priority groups win when everything can't fit.
3. Settings
How the layout rules work
- Format: 3-12 = MURS channel 3, ID 12. The handheld tells collars apart by the ID number (0–19). That gives one handheld 20 slots.
- Must never happen (in this order): 1) two collars with the exact same channel-ID, which jam each other on the air; 2) two dogs on one hunter's handheld sharing an ID number, even on different channels (e.g. 1-17 and 3-17). If there are more collars than IDs and some can't be avoided, they're spread across hunters so no one hunter takes most of them.
- Priority groups: every device in a group gets a different ID number. A group over 20 devices can't be fully clean, and the tool keeps the overlaps as few as possible.
- Nice to have: each hunter's dogs stay on one channel, as few collars change as possible, and everyone else's IDs spread out so ad-hoc tracking still mostly works.
- Each collar is its own collar: every collar on every hunter's list is planned as a separate collar, so two collars on the same ID always count as a conflict. Changing a collar's ID also changes its track code, so enter the new code from the handheld. Never put control codes in a shared club list.
- Active / Inactive: inactive collars stay on your list and keep their ID, but they're ignored when reducing interference and never cause a change. If it costs nothing, active collars still steer clear of an inactive collar's ID.
- Clubs: everyone in a club sees the same list. Members edit the hunters they've claimed with This is me; admins edit everything, change groups and settings, and apply new layouts. Changes made offline are saved on the phone and sent when there's signal.
- Handhelds also transmit (Contact ID). If you want those planned too, add one extra collar row under each hunter for their handheld.
- If an area requires a certain channel (e.g. North Maine Woods = channel 5 only), turn off the other channels under Settings.
- This is a planning aid, not affiliated with Garmin. Confirm with Channel View → My Devices on the Alpha before you cut dogs loose.