Historically, I’ve relied upon Dakota Alert sensors to detect and monitor motion around the property. I really like the MURS band sensors, because I can not only monitor activity from the Dakota Alert base station, but also with off-the-shelf MURS radios (e.g. handheld, mobile). For that reason, I still use the DA gear.
However … I recently started evaluating the 1/4 mile “long range” gear offered by Guardline. Each base station supports up to 16 motion sensors, which have proven to be very effective.
My only issue with the Guardline system vs. the Dakota Alert is in how the alarms annunciate. The DA alarms with a synthetic voice that says “Alert! Zone [#]” where # is zone number. The Guardline system associates what amounts to a ring-tone like on your cellphone with each sensor. I prefer the DA method, but am getting used to the Guardline tones. Oddly enough, so is my dog! I swear to God … when a tone goes off, her head snaps to where that sensor is on the property and she looks for ANYTHING there to bark at (e.g. deer, UPS truck, coyote, …). Smart dog.
2018.05.08 UPDATE … Guardline Sensor Range Test (Success!)
To test the new Guardline remote sensors, I recorded the base station while driving a tractor around a section of the perimeter path that took me through three discrete sensor zones, as you can determine by the three different “ring tones” heard on the video.
The senors are said to have a 1/4 mile range. In my case, they are 607 feet (0.12 miles) from the base station, which is well within published range. But, they are lower in elevation (down hill) from the base station, with a rather large stand of trees between them, so I was quite impressed they worked at that range, in those conditions.
Damn! Look at all the yellow pollen on the surface of the two base stations (BTW, that’s the Dakota Alert base on the right, which monitors other motion sensors). I just wiped them down last week. Jeeze.
We went with an OPTEX system that has an auxiliary relay output contact. That contact will then attach to a Spot Protect dry contact unit which will send an email and or text message (via WiFi and Internet) when the sensor detects motion (car, truck, unwelcome varmint).
Awesome! The Dakota Alert base has similar interfacing features, which I have yet to exploit. One thing I really like about the Dakota system is it’s MURS frequency utilization, because I can monitor the sensors up to a mile or so away with a MURS radio (e.g. handheld, truck mounted mobile). For example, once I was expecting a “signature required” FedEx shipment but needed to mow a few pastures. So, I donned a pair of shooting “ear muffs” with an input jack, and plugged a MURS handheld into the jack. That allowed me to mow, protect my hearing, and still hear the Dakota Alert when it detected the FedEx truck showing up at the end of the driveway. Gotta love technology (when it works!). 😉