GPS Question

FallRiverGuy · 02-17-2004, 10:14 AM

I just purchased my first GPS, as Garmin 76. While playing around with it this weekend it kept losing satellite reception. It happened both while I was standing next to my house and while I was walking down our road. The house has two stories and the road is lined with pine trees. Is this normal for a GPS to lose reception often under these conditions?

[ 02-17-2004, 11:41 AM: Message edited by: FallRiverGuy ]

El-Kabong · 02-17-2004, 10:30 AM

Hi FRG,

sadly yes.

EK

Bait O' Eggs · 02-17-2004, 10:43 AM

It is easy to lose satellite reception under trees, next to buildings etc...

I had a Garmin 12 and it was terrible, I now have a Garmin76map and it does lots and lots better than the 12 did, but it still loses satellites if I dont give it a clear sky

Snapset · 02-17-2004, 04:15 PM

Hey Brian, are you keeping the antenna pointed up? This may sound like a silly suggestion, but I didn't know about it when I first got mine. I go from praising the thing for its accuracy to cursing it for being even more lost than I usually am.

FallRiverGuy · 02-18-2004, 08:11 AM

I was at least doing that part right. I first initialized the unit in town and thought that might be causing the reception problem so I reinitialized the GPS at home. Have not checked it out yet. However on the 25 mile drive to work it never lost receptions even laying on its back on my dash.

Jeremy · 02-18-2004, 01:13 PM

I have a garmin 12 and have never had that problem. As long as you arent moving when you first acquire the satelites (takes a couple of minutes) once you get a good lock on them they usually stay locked unless you are moving really fast or covering a long distance where you loose the array over the horizon. You might want to make sure your GPS has the latest software available for it (downloadable off the internet). And if you want some good practice using it check out www.geocaching.com

Blue Tip Spinner · 02-18-2004, 02:05 PM

i have a garmin 12xl, and sadly i do loose reception if the canopy is dense. once i am locked on, i can usually stay online if i walk slowly in the direction it tells me. be careful if you are lost and trying to find the way back, you HAVE to be moving for the arrow to point you in the right direction (at least on the older models), so i carry a compass with me to take a true bearing reading if i can't move very fast.

corkyking · 02-18-2004, 02:16 PM

If you can get elevation (z) from your unit you have to see at least 4 satellites.

If you're only after (x,y) which is where you are standing without the elevation then you need at least 3 sats. Problem is if you lose one you lose lock and have to initialize again with a new sat.

Many of the newer units will lock on as many as 12 sats. If you start with 12 all over the sky it can usually stay locked without re-initializing.

To make a long story shorter, when you first turn it on try to get good signal on as many sats as you can.

Lured In · 02-18-2004, 02:32 PM

Most units will have a 'satellite tracking' view that shows how many satellites its tracking, how many are locked in and how strong the signal is. This can be helpful in determining the overall accuracy of your positioning. It will also give you an idea of what (if any) objects are blocking the signal. This is usually done via the 'sky' view and you can visually see that it will not be picking up signals in certain directions. By moving to compensate for this you can get a better signal.

I have also had my GPS start giving me erroneous readings as the batteries got close to 25%. I now swap them out as close to 50% as possible and always carry plenty of extra batteries.