Geocaching In Europe

[+tshrt]

[Hello,

I recently traveled to Sweden. I had 2 new bugs I wanted to put in a cache in Dalarna. I purchased European Mapping for Magellan an put my spots in an uploadable file for the gps. I also put in mapping in the gps to help with not getting lost. I loaded in the file and packed it away in the suitcase

 

When I got to Sweden... and turned on the gps I waited and waited and never got anything. No locations nada

 

Since I plan to return to Sweden.....

 

What did I do wrong???

 

tshrt

[+Team Tired Boy]

How long did you wait? I have used my Legend both in the US and in Europe with no problem. But it does take quite a while for the GPSr to get a fix the first time after traveling that distance.

[+Wadcutter]

Did you have the clock set for metric time? You know, 100 seconds in a minute. 100 minutes in an hour. 10 hours in the day, 10 hours in the night. 10 days in a week. 10 months a year.

[+tshrt]

About 10 - 15 minutes. We put it on dash of rental car and drove west.

[+Team Tired Boy]

My guess is it just couldn't acquire the satellites. I suggest setting it down in a place with a good view of the sky and not moving it for about 15 minutes next time. It's also possible that your car had a windshield that didn't allow the signal through. I'm sure someone can provide the link to the cars with such windshields.

[+Jamie Z]

Yeah, almost a sure thing that you didn't wait long enough.

 

10-15 minutes is usually enough time, but not always. Especially if you are moving. The car may have had a metallic coating on the windshield, too.

 

Next time, put the GPS somewhere where it can sit still for a while.

 

[uh, that's what Team Tired Boy said. Guess who's the tired one.]

 

Jamie

Edited November 30, 2005 by Jamie Z

[+Cornix]

When you travel that far it's a good idea to initialize your GPSr with the new coordinates so it knows which satellites to look for. This will help to get a lock much faster.

 

In case of your Magellan simply select Setup > Initialization. You get a menu where you can choose the country (Europe > Sweden) or enter rough coordinates manually.

 

Cornix

[+zoltig]

It took my Legend 20-25 mins to aquire sat. lock in UK from US. It takes a bit of time. If you are lucky enough to travel on an airline that lets you fire up the ol GPS while you are enroute, it will keep the sats locked in and start up will be much less.

[+Kai Team]

It took my Legend 20-25 mins to aquire sat. lock in UK from US. It takes a bit of time. If you are lucky enough to travel on an airline that lets you fire up the ol GPS while you are enroute, it will keep the sats locked in and start up will be much less.

You can also initalize the mapping Garmins when traveling large distances (over 500 miles) without using the GPSr. From the satellite screen, activate the menu and choose "New Location", then tell it your new location to speed up satellite acquisition.

[+zoltig]

It took my Legend 20-25 mins to aquire sat. lock in UK from US. It takes a bit of time. If you are lucky enough to travel on an airline that lets you fire up the ol GPS while you are enroute, it will keep the sats locked in and start up will be much less.

You can also initalize the mapping Garmins when traveling large distances (over 500 miles) without using the GPSr. From the satellite screen, activate the menu and choose "New Location", then tell it your new location to speed up satellite acquisition.

That is absolutely correct.Kai. Thanks. I had totally spaced that out. Old age, ya know!

Now, where did I put the car keys?

[+tshrt]

When you travel that far it's a good idea to initialize your GPSr with the new coordinates so it knows which satellites to look for. This will help to get a lock much faster.

 

In case of your Magellan simply select Setup > Initialization. You get a menu where you can choose the country (Europe > Sweden) or enter rough coordinates manually.

 

Cornix

I wondered if I needed to do that. Of course I was westward bound over the Atlantic then.

[+tshrt]

A big thank you to all