Horizontal directional drilling is all about control. You can have a powerful rig and a good crew, but if you cannot see where the drill head is going, every rod becomes a risk. That is why so many contractors build their guidance strategy around DigiTrak systems.
Two elements usually show up in the same conversation: the compact workhorse sondes that power F2 systems, and the higher performance capabilities of F5 guidance. Used together in a smart way, they cover most of the real jobs you see on the schedule, from short service lines to complex urban crossings.
Why F2 transmitters are still the backbone of many fleets
Look at what most HDD crews actually do in a week and a pattern appears. Lots of short and mid length bores. Fiber drops, water and gas services, small road crossings, local utility relocations. These are important jobs, but they rarely need extreme depth or the most advanced features on the market.
This is where a simple F2 based system shines. A locator your team already understands, paired with a reliable pool of DigiTrak F2 transmitters, is often all you need to complete those bores cleanly and on time.
When you standardize around a small set of F2 sondes you get:
- Consistent signal behavior that crews can read almost by instinct
- Matching housings and batteries across rigs
- Faster onboarding for new locator hands
- Fewer surprises when you move gear from one job to another
In other words, F2 is ideal for turning everyday work into a predictable, repeatable process instead of a fresh experiment every morning.
Where DigiTrak F5 earns its place
Of course, not every project fits the “everyday” box. Some jobs are deeper, longer or simply more stressful. You might be crossing under a busy highway, working near heavy power infrastructure or trying to land in a tight utility corridor where a small mistake is expensive.
That is where it makes sense to bring in DigiTrak F5.
An F5 based setup typically gives you:
- Extra range for deeper or extended pilot bores
- More frequency flexibility to fight electrical noise and rebar
- Clearer, more detailed readings when you need precise steering
Many contractors treat the F5 rig as the “special projects” unit. When the stakes are high, that is the rig you send, with the best sondes in your inventory and your most experienced locator.
Using F2 and F5 together instead of choosing one
A common trap is thinking you must pick a single “best” system for your entire company. In reality, a mixed approach is usually more profitable.
You can:
- Run most of your utility work on F2 locators with a stable pool of F2 sondes
- Reserve your F5 setup for the hardest, highest risk projects
- Move crews between rigs without forcing them to learn a totally different way of working
This way you are not paying F5 level money to do simple bores, and you are not forcing an F2 system into situations where it is out of its comfort zone. Equipment matches risk instead of ego.
How many sondes do you really need
Locators get most of the attention, but sondes are what actually fail in the middle of a bore. They live in heat, mud, vibration and pressure. When they die, guidance stops.
For each rig you should plan at least:
- One primary transmitter in the head
- One identical backup on the truck, ready to go
- Extra sondes at the yard that have been tested and are ready to rotate in
For an F2 based rig that runs daily, that usually means several DigiTrak F2 transmitters in circulation so you are never down to a single “last hope” unit. For an F5 rig, you might carry a mix of standard and extended range sondes, but the principle is the same. Redundancy costs less than downtime.
New vs refurbished: a practical mix
Once you know how many sondes you actually need, the next question is what to buy new and where refurbished makes more sense.
- Use new transmitters as primaries on your most critical F5 projects where failure in the middle of a long, deep bore would be extremely expensive.
- Use professionally refurbished F2 and F5 sondes as backups and on less demanding bores, as long as they are tested, sealed and warrantied.
The important thing is to treat all transmitters as critical components, not random consumables. Label them, track them and pull any unit that starts behaving strangely for bench testing instead of forcing it through one more bore.
Everyday habits that protect your investment
Whatever mix of F2 and F5 you choose, small daily habits make a big difference to sonde life. Train crews to:
- Inspect o rings and threads every time the housing is opened
- Keep battery compartments dry and free from corrosion
- Avoid mixing old and new batteries in a single transmitter
- Store sondes in padded cases, not loose in toolboxes
- Swap out any transmitter that starts giving jumpy or inconsistent readings
Those details might feel minor, but they are exactly what decides whether your sondes last a few months or a few years.