Gps Antenna

[+SCCS]

I have a friend that says he can get his unit to narrow down the accuracy to just 3' with an external antenna. Has anyone else be able to do this.

[+JohnnyVegas]

Well I have seen my GPS get within 3 feet of a cache lots of time and I do not use an external antenna, for me they are a waste of money, Besides, if the person that hid the cache was getting accuaracy of 10 or 20 feet, having an external antenna on your GPS is not going to help anyway, Save your money and spend it on something more usefull like DEET, Hiking socks, Batteries or anything else you will need.

[+Sputnik 57]

I like to use a Gilsson external antenna on my 60C when hiking. It lets me clip the receiver to my belt and still get good signal in trees. I attach the antenna to the shoulder strap of my backpack. Others put it in their hats.

 

I've never gotten and EPE of less than about 6 feet with it, and don't expect to. It does help, though, with greatly improved reception on the trail.

 

Just my $.02

[planewood]

I have a friend that says he can get his unit to narrow down the accuracy to just 3' with an external antenna. Has anyone else be able to do this.

 

SCCS -

 

Anytime you use your GPS to mark a location your just getting an estimate of the true location. That estimate can vary from being exactly correct to 30'-40' off. I have gotten 3' accuracy both with, and without, an external antenna on my 60cx. However, my testing has shown that an antenna will give consistently more accurate readings. i.e. the average variation from truth within a large number of readings will be less when using an antenna.

 

Do a search for "antenna". I have discussed this in some previous posts.

 

I don't think that using an antenna for geocaching would gain much. Was the unit used to mark the cache 3' off or 50' off? Now, if they had a Garmin 'x' series and were using an antenna, they could have been no more than 3'-6' off (but still could have been 20' off).

 

I have found that the accuracy figure given by my GPS is quite reliable. When marking a point, I have gotten into the habit of putting the reported accuracy in the name of the marked position. I wish that was something the units would capture automatically when marking a location.

[+budd-rdc]

I use GPSr's that do not accept external antennas (PDA attached Magellan and an eTrex) and have found ways to workaround reception problems in deep forest cover. For deep canyons and high rise buildings, I suspect external antennas will do you no good.

 

I have seen the Gilsson + GPSmap 60c perform very well in forest cover, and there are many in my area who use this setup. Before you make a decision to buy one, though, continue your research on its effectiveness - there are some models of GPSr's that perform quite well without it in case you are looking to buy another unit.