WAAS, on or off?

[+Ultimate 5]

I live in Northern, IN. I have a Garmin 60CSx. Should I have the WAAS enabled or disabled? I use the GPSr for driving and caching. I have played around just a bit, and it actually appears slightly better with WAAS disabled... am I crazy?

 

Thanks for helping a newbie!

[+TheRoundings]

When driving WAAS is not of any real use as the navigation snaps to the roads anyway. When caching if you have a clear view of the southern sky and can pick up the WAAS sats then you should get a more accurate position - however it's likely that you will be walking through tree cover or not have a clear view of the southern sky in which case WAAS won't be picked up, at least not all the time.

 

What makes you think that 'it appears slightly better with WAAS disabled'? What are you referrencing your position against?

[+budd-rdc]

I was in Northern Indiana area not too long ago, including South Bend. You should be able to pick up WAAS signal, even in lightly wooded areas, so I recommend you use it for a while and get used to how your Garmin behaves.

 

Your 60CSx will behave just fine in case it can't pick up WAAS due to buildings and/or dense forest. Why bother switching it on and off when your Garmin is smart enough to know what to do?

[bkrownd]

I tried WAAS for a while, but it didn't seem to change accuracy considerably, and the rumor mill says it uses more battery, so I disabled it again. Dunno.

[+Ultimate 5]

The satellite page will show "accuracy". I stood out in a big parking lot for a long time, and seemed like the best I could get with WAAS was around 11, and with it off, I could get 9. Went back and forth a few times, was it just a quinkie dink??

 

One of the reasons (many reasons) I got the 60CSx is it had WAAS.

[+hogrod]

The satellite page will show "accuracy". I stood out in a big parking lot for a long time, and seemed like the best I could get with WAAS was around 11, and with it off, I could get 9. Went back and forth a few times, was it just a quinkie dink??

 

One of the reasons (many reasons) I got the 60CSx is it had WAAS.

 

I wouldn't read to much into the units Claimed accuracy, I have also noticed that the 60cx I have will claim better accuracy with wass off. That's fine and all but WAAS is an error correction signal so even if my unit thinks its 9ft accuracy, the wass signal is going to correct any errors in it's calculation. I have never noticed any decreased battery life but I'm not going to say thats not possible.

[+Mudfrog]

I tried WAAS for a while, but it didn't seem to change accuracy considerably, and the rumor mill says it uses more battery, so I disabled it again. Dunno.

 

I have a couple of older 76 series GPSrs and i've tried using them both ways. Never saw any difference, at least any that would help me when geocaching. I also read somewhere that enabling it used the batteries up faster as well. There are a couple more WAAS satellites up now and i've messed with it again just recently. I do get a better estimated accuracy but i still can't see that it does any better.

 

Keep in mind that i am talking about older units and there may be a more noticeable difference with the better reception of the cx models!