OK, I've heard it mentioned that a few folks would be interested in a product like this. I'm not offering it for sell yet, but wanted some input.

As we all know, hogs live a bit on the nocturnal side. We all see them come and go on camera bewtween 1 and 4 am on a regular basis. You can set up all night sometimes while seeing nothing....and you got no rest.

Well, I modified a product meant for one purpose and came up with a use for night hog hunting. Basically, you put the headphones on and go to sleep in the blind. The system will notify you when animals are present. Wake up and kapow!

If nothing comes, at least you got some sleep.

It will accept up to 8 sensors, each with its own identification tone. You can monitor a feeder and maybe some incoming trails....and will know which area is seeing activity.

I know I am going to use the one I built, but I wondered if there might be other interest out there?

Sounds cool. How far will it notify? What price range?

Do you take cash, check, or credit card

Would love to have one!

Now you are going to have to come up with something to muffle the snoring of the sleeping hunters.

If totallyy be interested

So this is something like a Dakota Alerts MURS system? Will the receiver tell you which sensor has gone off? What sort of range are you thinking will be possible?

Hey all.... The base can detect the sensors up to 1/2 mile. It is not a line of sight thing, but like low power RF, the more you throw in front of it the more the signal is attenuated.

As to pricing, I haven't gotten that far. Heck, I just threw it out here to see if there was any interest. I got the idea because I've had a couple of monster hogs that only come around in the middle of the night. I'll be danged if I'm going to set up all night watching for them...heck, I'm too old for that. So, I started tinkering and thinking what I could do to solve the issue....and this was the result.

placed on trail leading to your feeder, they would be a nice alert for incoming deer also. Sort of a heads up...

Here's a pic of my first try at it:

DNS - No it is not the same as the Dakota system. This would cost much less, particularly as concerns monitoring multiple locations. The Dakota system looks like it would get pretty expensive....though it also appears yo be more sophisticated.

My attempt was to find an affordable, yet effective solution. I have some further testing to do, but didn't want to put a lot of time in it if I was the only one interested.

JCB - How about some clothes pins for the nose??? :-)

I've though of running fishing line with a bell on the end of it to the blind lol. Simple but effective

Looks like the same unit I got, minus battery and headed set I got from Walmart. Com

Walmart.com may sale the base unit, but it needs modification to work for this application. I didn't invent the box, just adapted it for this use.

Yep, it would work in a limited way. I had heard of folks trying it. I'm not sure I'd hear it and wake up...

i have this at work for cars coming in and out. You took my idea for this (minus the head set, good idea on that) it works on AA batteries. Here is the down fall it must be mounted 40 in above the ground, hogs are not that tall, if put on ground hogs might mess with it and destroy it. Either way am going to try it this weekend. I got mine from Northern Tools. It cost about $60 bucks for the base and $35 for each additional sensor. wroadkill you sir have a bright mind. Let me know if it works ill let you know how i do.

http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200415517_200415517

Cool idea. I used to put some corn in a laid-over galvanized trash can (the older and more beat up the noisier they can be) as an "alert system." Made plenty of noise with something eating out of it and pushing it around, but was usually coons.

Check out Dakota Alert

Interested yes

Great idea!

A bell on a pig pipe works wonders......

It's way different and much more costly.

I'm prolly to deaf to hear a bell at 100 yards...just ask my wife..

OK, first, you can get this much cheaper than at Northern Tool...

Second, it doesn't have to be mounted 40" off the ground (my manual says 3-5 feet and appears to be more suggestive than a must). I think the idea is to avoid false alerts by being too low (i.e., rabbits, skunks, possums and whatnot.). Positioning of the sensors will be critical. You want to avoid having anything in front of it that the wind can blow (i.e., small branches or tall grasses/weeds, etc.)

The headset, of course, is one of my modifications. It is not terribly technical, but as I have learned, beyond the skills or know-how of a reasonable percentage of our society. You also need to delete the sonolert.

Another thing is that the base is generally set up for AC with a DC backup. I think you'll find that the 4 little AA's won't run the base all that long. Thus, the addition of the 6 volt feeder battery which can be kept going for a very long time with a small 6 volt solar panel. Again, not all that technical, but requires a little basic knowledge and skills.

The actual downfall to me is the sensor power. With a lot of activity those 4 AA's won't last all that long. There are solutions of course, but each adds expense.

My goal from the start was to come up with something that was affordable to a lot of folks. Something simple. The Dakota MURS system is way too sophisticated and costly for the masses. I haven't added it up, but to cover multiple areas it would be very expensive. This system can monitor up to 8 sensors for less cost than one Dakota base and "sensor" unit. I'm sure the Dakota is great, but Joe Bob weekend hunter ain't buyin' it.

Something else I have been working on as an addition is a wireless RF vibration alert. You would be able to place it in your pocket and let it wake you. Headphones or an earphone is fine, but I'm wondering if the vibration wouldn't be better?

Lastly, I don't have a bright mind. I just like to think about hunting solutions and tinker...

Tinkering is good. I have gone three about 4 different brands of various sorts of motion detection gizmos. The greatest fiasco came from Spypoint.
http://www.amazon.com/SpyPoint-WRL-Wirel...motion+detector

Great idea, crappy product.

Hunter alert had a very inexpensive product, but at the expense of being cheaply made and rapidly failed if wet, plus only worked for about 100 yards. Still, you got 4 sensors and a receiver and each sensor triggered a different light on the receiver so you knew exactly which one sent the signal. The whole set cost $25, but the tsunami in Japan wiped out the factory and the product isn't made anymore...
http://www.hunteralert.com/

The problem I have had with all of them, however, is that the don't detect hogs. They detect anything that moves (assuming they work). So they detect deer, coons, turkeys, coyotes, buzzards, and sometimes squirrels and rabbits. You can't just detect hogs while you sleep. You detect whatever moves. So this notion about being able to sleep until the hogs arrive is a be of a misdirection. Nobody has made a hog detector.

The Dakota Alert MURS is expensive, but I would not call it too expensive for the masses. I see what people are paying for leases, ammo, driving, hunts, specialty attractants, scent covers, high tech camo, etc. The masses are already heavily invested and so if they want some improved performance for a reasonable product, it isn't a bad deal. It just depends on what your needs really are.

Joebob weekend hunter ain't buying it because Joebob doesn't know about it. Some will buy it, some won't. I don't see Joebob carrying around a great big honkin' 6 v battery for the base station either, right. Will detect 8 sensors? Cool. If you don't know which and where, then where does that leave you? Eight sensors have the potential to not let you get any sleep, LOL. You will know that there are animals out there, somewhere, and one or more anonymous locations. Dakota Alerts only gives you the option of 4 per channel, granted, but each at least identifies itself by number.

You are on the right track, but maybe the wrong train. The issue isn't clear cut and the solution isn't entirely simply.

The Dakota Alerts MURS system isn't the be all to end all answer either. It doesn't have vibration alert. It is pricy. The alerts are a fixed recording that are annoying (but do perform as advertised). The sensors are not preset to accept solar power, but do operate for a out 3-6 weeks on 6 rechargeable AA batteries). The handheld receiver will run for 10+ hours on a single charge, which is okay, but not great.

I like tinkering as well. Cool idea all around and hope you get it perfected! The game cam systems with realtime pictures that upload to the net or text to you would work wouldnt they?That way you could see what triggered not that it was triggered, check the timestamp. Could you save each cam as a different contact do when it texts you it says the cam name? Again, pricy but effective. Does anybody use these? How quick do the pictures get to you?