Anyone Have Trouble Getting A Satellite Lock Sunday?

[pikejb]

Yesterday, on Sunday April 9, 2006 I went hiking and took my gps. There was a cache on the trail I hiked, and I would have liked to find it, but I couldn't get a third satellite lock. I use a Magellan Sportrak Pro, and attributed the poor signal to being on a trail with lots of trees, and a few small mountains around. My Magellan is 12-channel WAAS enabled, etc. and usually locks into the satellites very well. I did find a few clearings where I thought I should be able to get a lock, but it just wouldn't work.

 

Then I talked to another person today that uses a Magellan Meridian Platinum and he had trouble getting satellite locks yesterday also even though he was driving down the Interstate with no trees around. He said he eventually got a weak lock after setting the gps down for a while, but even then the signal would go in and out which is not normal.

 

That got me thinking that my problem might not have been the trees/mountains. I have heard talk of the satellites being temporarily disabled for a short time for whatever reason. I was wondering if anyone else experienced similar problems while out geocaching this weekend?

[+Miragee]

I was up on Palomar Mountain Sunday and got all the satellites and at times had 8' accuracy with my Garmin Vista C.

 

So . . . I didn't experience the problem you are describing.

[+markp99]

I was having very poor reception on Sunday here in the East. I was seeing exptended periods with 124 ft accuracy on my eXp500 in a lightly wooded area w/no leaves.

[pikejb]

I was having very poor reception on Sunday here in the East. I was seeing exptended periods with 124 ft accuracy on my eXp500 in a lightly wooded area w/no leaves.

 

Mark,

 

How was the cloud cover? I was in western central Arkansas with clear skies. I tried it a little in the car on the way home and got a weak lock with the kind of accuracy levels you mentioned.

[+Adrenalynn]

I was having very poor reception on Sunday here in the East. I was seeing exptended periods with 124 ft accuracy on my eXp500 in a lightly wooded area w/no leaves.

 

Mark,

 

How was the cloud cover? I was in western central Arkansas with clear skies. I tried it a little in the car on the way home and got a weak lock with the kind of accuracy levels you mentioned.

 

Out hiking in broken heavy cloud cover in California yesterday, from 13:00-19:45. Had pretty much 8-12birds all day except under heavy foliage, at times an estimated 7ft accuracy. It was within 10' of the posted cords in all but one out of eleven instances. (Ancient Garmin eMap)

[Rayman]

I was having trouble yesterday also up here in Buffalo. My Explorist 500 picked up a decent number of satellites (6-7), but couldn't get WAAS enabled. Skies were clear and blue, and the trees are still bare, so there should have been no problem.

[pikejb]

hmmm - all problems so far have been on Magellan units in the eastern U.S. I wonder if the problem was related to the location, or the brand of the gps, or both.

[+CharlieP]

I have been having some reception problems lately here in Georgia, esp. with WAAS and I suspect it is related to the movement of WAAS sat #35 and the testing of some new WAAS sats. I have read that the system will not be fully operational again in the Eastern US until September. I have a Garmin GPS76 so it is not just Maggy's, but they may be having more problems with this transition.

Edited April 10, 2006 by CharlieP

[+fox-and-the-hound]

Here in northeastern PA, we had 5'-10' accuracy all day with an old GarminXL12 (circa '98) at 8 out of 8 locations. Sunny skies and minimal to moderate coverage between 10am and 5pm.

 

I keep hearing that it's impossible to get coords to within 5 feet, but we routinely end up standing within arm reach of most caches whenever we're up near the ridges with only a very few exceptions. - H

Edited April 10, 2006 by fox-and-the-hound

[pikejb]

Here in northeastern PA, we had 5'-10' accuracy all day with an old GarminXL12 (circa '98) at 8 out of 8 locations. Sunny skies and minimal to moderate coverage between 10am and 5pm.

 

I keep hearing that it's impossible to get coords to within 5 feet, but we routinely end up standing within arm reach of most caches whenever we're up near the ridges with only a very few exceptions. - H

 

Fox,

 

Does your gps have WAAS, was it enabled?

[+rhelt100]

I had problems getting a 3 satellite lock for the first time ever with my explorist 210. However, I think it was the fact that we were down in a gorge with 100 ft. cliffs a hundred feet in both directions. I retreated back to a more open area and got a 4 satellite lock then proceeded down the trail and it did fine after that.

 

this was in Eastern Pennsylvania btw.

[+bahama97]

I had the same problem in Eastern NC using a Magellan 210.

[+Mopar]

I had such a great lock Sunday, I took a pic of it!

[ParentsofSAM]

We had trouble also. With Explorist 200 and SportTrak.

 

But not so much trouble that we could not find 3 caches.

[+GPSOkie]

No problems here in NE Oklahoma using a Lowrance H2O. Found 6 caches, two of which were in heavily wooded areas.

[+shadowcacher]

I had not been caching in a while. Actually thought it was "me" or that my GPS was doing something funky. It just didn't seem to be picking up satellites like usual. (Magellan ColorTrak). It did track, and I was able to log 2 caches. Above responses lead me to believe that the moving of satellites is having an effect with our GPSs in the Eastern US. Thanks for the posts. Nice to know it was not just me! shadow

[+fox-and-the-hound]

Here in northeastern PA, we had 5'-10' accuracy all day with an old GarminXL12 (circa '98) at 8 out of 8 locations. Sunny skies and minimal to moderate coverage between 10am and 5pm.

 

I keep hearing that it's impossible to get coords to within 5 feet, but we routinely end up standing within arm reach of most caches whenever we're up near the ridges with only a very few exceptions. - H

 

Fox,

 

Does your gps have WAAS, was it enabled?

 

Maybe, but I don't think so. I didn't even know what WAAS was until I looked it up. Then again, we just figured how to plug in a waypoint a few weeks ago. We still don't use the "little black arrow" very often. Just a compass, cords and occasional glance at the GPSr. I don't know when WAAS became a standard of anykind and like I said, my unit is a 1998 version with 1998 software. Bought it on ebay from a soldier who was stationed overseas for a time. It's a surprisingly tough unit though.

[+Team Red Oak]

We had a terrible time on Sunday (Maryland Eastern Shore) with 2 of the 4 caches we searched for. We use a Garmin eTrex Legend. We figured it was our location though. The area we were in was a pine forest, but it is also in an area where they used to mine bog iron in the 1800s so there is iron in the area. We would occasionally lose reception or the arrow wouldn't move as we turned. The numbers would continue to decrease though.

 

One of the the other 2 caches was also in a pine forest, but about an hour away and we had no problems, the fourth cache was at a marina and no problems.

 

Our WAAS was off. Sunday was a very unusual day, normally we have very good accuracy. I doubt WAAS would have made a difference.

Edited April 11, 2006 by Team Red Oak

[c4shm0ney]

solar flares?

[+Wild Thing 73]

Yesterday, on Sunday April 9, 2006 I went hiking and took my gps. There was a cache on the trail I hiked, and I would have liked to find it, but I couldn't get a third satellite lock. I use a Magellan Sportrak Pro, and attributed the poor signal to being on a trail with lots of trees, and a few small mountains around. My Magellan is 12-channel WAAS enabled, etc. and usually locks into the satellites very well. I did find a few clearings where I thought I should be able to get a lock, but it just wouldn't work.

 

Then I talked to another person today that uses a Magellan Meridian Platinum and he had trouble getting satellite locks yesterday also even though he was driving down the Interstate with no trees around. He said he eventually got a weak lock after setting the gps down for a while, but even then the signal would go in and out which is not normal.

 

That got me thinking that my problem might not have been the trees/mountains. I have heard talk of the satellites being temporarily disabled for a short time for whatever reason. I was wondering if anyone else experienced similar problems while out geocaching this weekend?

I could not get a lock 4/11 ( Tuesday ) on Mont Eagle in TN...I had good bars (3 only)no Ds...no lock. I tried for about 1/2 hour. : An other visitor from SC had problems with his GPSr at the same time. Drove down from the mountain...had great reception and 8 Ds... Legend cx...Sky was clear, no tree obstructions.

Edited April 12, 2006 by Wild Thing 73

[+NevaP]

I was caching in southeast Missouri about 12:30 PM CDT, on Sunday, clear skies, mostly out in the open, approaching a cache, and my three and a half year old, beat up, Magellan 315 went absolutely bonkers. I was about .25 miles from the cache and suddenly the GPSr go-to distance started jumping to 7.5 miles, 5 miles, .5 miles, 3 miles, 400 feet etc etc. with the distance and direction changing every few seconds.

 

I figured the poor old Magellan was ailing (I had dropped it two days earlier, face down on a hard packed trail, causing it to completely lose its display, then cured it by the tried and true method of dropping it again face up) I searched for the cache in the area where I thought it might be without success, and headed back to our campground. On the way I noticed that the Magellan was behaving again and I went after a different cache. It led me right to one deep in the woods and later right to the one I was looking for earlier.

 

The disruption lasted about half an hour. I'll join those suspecting a solar flare.

[+briansnat]

No problem at all on Sunday in NJ. I was getting a 10-20 ft EPE on a ridgeline under clear skies (though I have experienced better under those conditions). Placed two caches and they were found the next day with no complaints about coordinates