Ortovox Diract vs BCA Trackers

The Ortovox Diract Voice ($450.00) and the BCA Tracker4 ($399.95) avalanche transceivers receive similar scores on BeaconReviews.com (4.5 and 4.0), yet how they arrive at those scores, their strengths and weaknesses, are quite different. This page clarifies those differences.

The comparisons on this page refer to the Diract "mute" and Diract Voice duo of avalanche transceivers, with the Tracker3, Tracker3+, TrackerS, and Tracker4 family of transceivers.

Strengths and Weaknesses of Diract transceivers

The primary strengths of the Diract transceivers are:

• Outstanding graphic displays. The Diract's bitmapped display can show anything.
• Superb user controls. The Diract's power, flag, and search "flap" are intuitive and mitten-friendly.

The Diract also has a customizable start-up screen (so you can display your phone number), automatically suggests a narrower search strip width if it detects interference, will point behind you if you are moving away from the buried victim, and it is updated using Bluetooth rather than requiring a USB cable.

The primary weakness of the Diract transceivers is:

• Poor spike handling. This makes it difficult to perform a fine search.

Strengths and Weaknesses of Tracker transceivers

The primary strengths of the Tracker transceivers are:

• Trustworthy direction indicator.
• Solid spike handling.

The primary weaknesses of the Tracker transceivers are:

• Limited display. The Trackers can only show two characters which are formed using seven straight lines.
• Non-ergonomic user controls. The Tracker's single small dial and release switch are difficult to operate when wearing bulky gloves and it is less obvious when you are in Send versus Search mode.
• Inability to truly mark (i.e., ignore) a signal during a multiple-burial search.

Common Strengths and Weaknesses

The strengths of both the Diracts and the Trackers are:

• They are relatively small and lightweight.
• They are relatively reasonably priced (the Direct Voice is $450.00 and the Tracker4 is $399.95).

The weakness of both the Diracts and the Trackers is:

• Shorter reception ranges (although the Diract's reception range appears to be better than the Tracker's when the antennas are misaligned). You should make narrower search strips when using these transceivers.

Conclusions

• See the review conclusions of the Diract Voice and the Tracker4.