PerryB2

Garmin 60CSx lost reception. When I hike I turn my 60CSx on and have it record a track log. I hike in the Cascade Mountains of Washington. Yesterday the 60CSx beeped and reported that it lost reception. It was in a valley bottom with steep ridges to the west and east, so I was not too surprised. However, as the trail went up toward more open country it still did not calculated a location. The Satellite page just kept saying “acquiring satellites” even though for an extended period 3 satellite bars were full strength or almost, and solid color, indicating that data from those satellites had been collected. Later it was showing 4 full / almost full strength solid bars for an extended period but still was not calculation a location. Finally after 50 minutes (based on checking the track logs) it started calculating a location. It worked fine for the rest of the day. During the time it wouldn’t calculate a location, I tried power off and on and “new location” a few times but neither helped. Any suggestions for getting it past the “acquiring satellites” to calculating a location? Software version is 3.60, GPS SW version is 3.00.

What limit do you have set for number of track points? From the map page > Menu button > Setup map > scroll left or right to the Track icon > is the Track Points set to 10,000? What is the track recording method set to? Using Distance can reduce the number of track points.

I updated to 3.90 and took the 60CSx on a hike last week. The hike was in a wooded mountain valley. I got the Lost Reception message a couple of times. When I downloaded the track at home I found two track segments with a 1800 ft gap between. I have not gotten the Lost Reception message before while out hiking and have not seen a gap it tracks like this before. In the past I have seen long straight segments, where I figured it had poor reception and was just connecting the dots. Of course, this all could have been due to the particular location, but my impression is that with 3.90 it’s more willing to acknowledge poor / lost reception. Has anyone else had a similar experience?

I’m wondering what does the Code Page selection list in MapsetToolkit do?

No. I find the PN-20 screen very readable in all daylight situations without the need for any backlight.

This may partially answer your question: I have both a 60CSx and PN-20. The PN-20 has a patch antenna; I assume the PN-40 has the same. In difficult forested mountainous terrain carrying the PN-20 horizontal face up definitely helps in my experience (mountain valleys of WA Olympics and Cascades). Using and REI electronics pouch attached to the shoulder strap of my pack I found it fairly easy to carry it horizontal face up. In my experience I found the 60CSx to be a little more accurate that the PN-20. This is based on the spread of the tracks going in and coming out on the same trail. To quantify that a little on one hike the PN-20 tracks were a maximum of 70 ft apart. The 60CSx tracks were a max of 47 ft apart. The difference between the two is small enough that when hiking in a valley the one which is on my outside shoulder (away from the hillside) often does better. Both have produced straight track segments where presumably the reception was too poor to record a track point. Again 60CSx did this less, but the difference was fairly small. It would not take a very big improvement for the PN-40 to match or beat the 60CSx.

“routes” is NG Topo’s term for tracks in this case. It will import them as a series of waypoints or as a line/trail.

What version of NG Topo are you running? Do you have Mapsource? You can export to GPX from there and import into NG Topo. I’ve had no problems importing GPX files into NG Topo (or directly from a 60CSx). Tracks do end up as trails/lines in NG Topo; you can not then export with all the original track information.

I couldn't actually figured out how to get data from that clearinghouse. It never let me select the layers I wanted to downloaded. And I thought the USGS seamless server had a lot of land cover data. Dan, Thanks, let's continue the discussion on GPSFileDepot. Perry

Another good source for Forest Service data is the FSGeodata Clearinghouse http://fsgeodata.fs.fed.us/clearinghouse/index.html In an area of the Olympic NF I’ve looked at the TIGER 2007 shapefiles have lots of roads that are long gone. The FS road data is much closer to current road reality. Anyone found a good source for land cover (woods) in vector format?

If you can, you might try carrying it attached to the shoulder strap, face up to see if that improves the accuracy of the odometer.

HiknVA, How were you carrying your GPS? Did you have it in your hand watching the screen the whole time? If not it may not have had good reception at times, which can result in GPS ‘wandering’ which can add to the mileage.

If you don’t get the help you need here, you might try posting your problem in the Yahoo map_authors forum. How are you registering your maps with MapSource? Have you tried MapSetToolKit?

I’ll add a little to julianh’s experiments. I’ve compared the elevation profile of a gps without auto-calibrated barometric elevation to a 60CSx with. Particularly when reception is not great the gps only elevation fluctuates a lot more. To get the best elevation profile from the 60CSx it helps to recalibrate the altimeter if the gps has been turned off for sometime…because barometric pressure may well have changed due to weather. The 60CSx will adjust for the change but it takes quite while.

Isn’t the Topo map in the 400T the same as Topo 2008 which you can buy and load on the 60CSx, except that the 60CSx does not show the shading? Topo 2008 has more contour detail in some areas than the older Garmin Topo map, but it’s the same as the older one in other areas.

<Think it's because I am not saving the track?> I don't "Save" the tracks on the GPS.

How were you carrying the GPS? Besides trees, and mountains/valleys, your body can block satellite signals…maybe enough to affect accuracy for part of the hike. I was indeed carrying in my coat pocket, can't say for fact my body didnt effect the signal, but I do know everytime I pulled GPS out of pocket it had excellent signal, it does take several seconds to look, maybe enough time to aquire more satelites. I've also walked the same path, same coat, since several times with no issues. It does seem like you can put this HCx anyplace and it obtains decent reception. I assume the HCx has it’s antenna above the display. To give yourself an idea about how much the body can block signals, turn on the GPS outside, let it acquire a location fix, look at the satellite bar graph page and put your had over the antenna area. You will likely see the signal strength drop very noticeably. Your hand is a lot thinner than the rest of your body.

I’m not that familiar with the Colorado. What kind of antenna does it have? If it’s a patch type antenna, it may get it’s best reception horizontal face up. If a patch antenna, and if it was attached in a way that it could be facing in toward your body at times, it may have been getting very poor reception at those times…just an idea to explore.

Right, not when its turned off but when it is turned back on in another place. It remembers where you were when you shut it off and when you turn it back on in another place it will add the distance between those two points. Try it. Example, drive 1 mile with the unit turned on, shut it off and drive back to where you started. Now turn the unit on, let it get a fix and then check your mileage on the device odometer and trip odometer. You will see 2 miles. DeLorme says this is the nature of the unit. I'm waiting for Garmin's answer on the 60cs. Using your example, on my PN-20 the trip odometer will only show one mile. I’ve checked it. The device odometer will show two miles. I don’t know what could be different about your unit. FW version? Something in setup?

How were you carrying the GPS? Besides trees, and mountains/valleys, your body can block satellite signals…maybe enough to affect accuracy for part of the hike.

On the PN-20 the Trip Odometer does not add in extra miles while the GPS is off and the track log does not either.

Is Washington on the 'to do' list? Thanks

The track log records points based on how you set it up…automatic, time, distance. So it’s results will vary from the trip odometer. If reception is poor…woods, mountains, your body blocking signals, builds, etc there will be more wandering of the track log points, particularly if it’s set to time or automatic.

I just tested my 60CSx. It’s been off for a few days and this is a different location than I last used it. Out side with ¾ sky view: power on to first location fix was 33 seconds.

Between Garmin and DeLorme topos, the biggest difference in what you see on the GPS will be the contour line detail. Garmin is generally similar to 100k topos (depending on area 150’ intervals) and DeLorme is similar to 24k topos (at normal detail 20 ft intervals). Other posts on this forum say that Garmin Topo 2008 road locations are off by a few hundred feet in some areas. I use mine for hiking, so don’t look at the roads that much and have not noticed. The current pn-20 bundle ‘March Madness’ price is $300. The DeLorme Topo 7 software has quite a few more features than Garmin MapSource so it does take some more time to learn…how much is hard to define…a few days? DeLorme customer support is great. In addition to very responsive customer service, they have a user forum with active participation by DeLorme staff.