WAAS on/off

[the4horsemen]

Hi guys, very new to geocaching and was wondering about WAAS. Do most people when hiding their caches have this on or off? I was out on Saturday and had WAAS on for a bit and my GPS said it was +/- 3 metres accurate. I turned it off and then it said it was +/- 15 metres accurate. However i was locating caches far more easily with it off which made me wonder how accurate the coordinates are when they are published. Surely it would be better for people to switch it on so the coordinate is very accurate

[GPS treasuredragon]

Hi there

some times they forget to turn it on and in heavy cover the signal is block.

Also depends how long it takes their GPSrs to lock on a satalite.

[+StarBrand]

While most cachers leave it on all the time, some don't. And others do not even have it as an option on thier GPS. Even if it is turned on, it does not always locate a useable signal from a WAAS sat.

 

Botoom line is, you have no idea whether the hider had WAAS or a WAAS signal when they placed the cache.

 

I just leave it turned on in my unit and never really think about it one way or another. Most caches can be found within 20 - 25 feet of GZ anyway. Sometimes I find them a bit further out but not often.

 

When hiding, if I get WAAS great - if not oh well. I always use the averaging in the unit and take about 100 readings.

[+Mr_Mikey]

I have read that using WAAS uses more batteries. I only use WAAS if I am stumped on finding a cache, for the most part I have found the majority of caches not using it.

 

http://www8.garmin.com/aboutGPS/waas.html

 

This is Garmins description of WAAS

[+StarBrand]

I have read that using WAAS uses more batteries. I only use WAAS if I am stumped on finding a cache, for the most part I have found the majority of caches not using it.

 

http://www8.garmin.com/aboutGPS/waas.html

 

This is Garmins description of WAAS

I think you will find the extra power drain from WAAS to be quite small. I estimate it takes no more than 5% or so off of the battery life leaving it on.

[+Bill & Tammy]

For some time my eTrex legend was doing a 35' bounce under canopy near GZ at caches. I found out that my WAAS had been inadvertently switched off. Turned it back on and didn't seem to have the problem again.

[GamMan]

I think you will find the extra power drain from WAAS to be quite small. I estimate it takes no more than 5% or so off of the battery life leaving it on.

 

WAAS actually uses no more or less power. WAAS does not actually improve your signal or amp the power. Instead, stations positioned around the US tell the satellites how far off they are from perfect, this info gets pinged off the satellite to you and your GPSr makes the corrections.

 

However, there are certain times of day, or according to weather, that WAAS even gets off, and transmits an errant signal, thus harming your overall accuracy.

 

Most new GPSr's have a feature that turns on WAAS when it gives you greater accuracy, and turns it off when it doesn't.

 

I always keep it on unless I see accuracies of more than 40ft, then I turn it off hoping to forcibly improve upon it.

[+Renegade Knight]

On my GPS V turning on WAAS gives me noticable lag when doing other things so I leave it off. No complaints on my hides or finds with it off. If I get a newer GPS I'd probably leave it on. They use faster procesors.

[+StarBrand]

 

WAAS actually uses no more or less power. WAAS does not actually improve your signal or amp the power. Instead, stations positioned around the US tell the satellites how far off they are from perfect, this info gets pinged off the satellite to you and your GPSr makes the corrections.

 

However, there are certain times of day, or according to weather, that WAAS even gets off, and transmits an errant signal, thus harming your overall accuracy.

 

Most new GPSr's have a feature that turns on WAAS when it gives you greater accuracy, and turns it off when it doesn't.

 

I always keep it on unless I see accuracies of more than 40ft, then I turn it off hoping to forcibly improve upon it.

 

That is complete silliness - there is absolutely nothing in the WAAS implementation that could possibly ever make the reading LESS accurate. It might not help but it certainly won't make it worse.

 

And both Garmin and Magellan both have published papers stating that thier units do in fact consume extra power when WAAS is turned on.

 

There are specific sats that are for WAAS in specific orbits that send a correction signal to your unit. The rest of the sats are continually updated by the ground system regardless of WAAS.

Edited July 26, 2007 by StarBrand

[+StarBrand]

Slight correction - WAAS will not make things worse so long as you are in an area that was intended to be covered by the WAAS system - aka - All of the US and most of North America. (Also various other parts of the world)