GPS any different in Canada?

[+Mud Master]

I have a Garmin Etrex Legend HCx and do most of my GC'ing in western New York. Occasionally I go into Canada but for some reason the accuracy is terrible. Do they have WAAS? I can't figure it out. As soon as I come back everything is fine again.

Any ideas?

[+Puppy Dawg]

No.

[+Cpl. Klinger]

I have a Garmin Etrex Legend HCx and do most of my GC'ing in western New York. Occasionally I go into Canada but for some reason the accuracy is terrible. Do they have WAAS? I can't figure it out. As soon as I come back everything is fine again.

Any ideas?

 

No, WAAS is everywhere...

 

I find, when using my wife's eTrex Vista, that sometimes if I've moved it a fair distance between turning it on, or if it's been a really long time between turning it on and it's a far distance from the last place it was, I get screwy accuracy. To fix it, I turn it on and off about 3-4 times and recalibrate the compass, and things settle down. Of course, YMMV.

[+zoltig]

I have a Garmin Etrex Legend HCx and do most of my GC'ing in western New York. Occasionally I go into Canada but for some reason the accuracy is terrible.

The Canadian Satellites are way off and do not work well at all. I think it has to do with being assembled in the cold.

Plus you know those Canooks? They are always trying to trick the neighbo(u)rs to the south.

<adding that my response was tongue in cheek. I couldn't think of better neighbors. If it wasn't for you, we wouldn't have jambalya! Ok that's a looong way around the Maple tree but I think you know what I mean>

Edited August 30, 2009 by zoltig

[+ecanderson]

I have a Garmin Etrex Legend HCx and do most of my GC'ing in western New York. Occasionally I go into Canada but for some reason the accuracy is terrible. Do they have WAAS? I can't figure it out. As soon as I come back everything is fine again.

Any ideas?

If you're caching in Quebec, I think you have to enter the coordinates in French Apart from that, your performance should be identical to what you see in NY.

[+Gitchee-Gummee]

Try telling your GPSr you are now in Canada, insteady of NY! Ya know, riding around in a glovebox isn't much fun, only to be pulled out and told to get to work, not knowing where you are.

[+doingitoldschool]

I have a Garmin Etrex Legend HCx and do most of my GC'ing in western New York. Occasionally I go into Canada but for some reason the accuracy is terrible.

The Canadian Satellites are way off and do not work well at all. I think it has to do with being assembled in the cold.

Plus you know those Canooks? They are always trying to trick the neighbo(u)rs to the south.

<adding that my response was tongue in cheek. I couldn't think of better neighbors. If it wasn't for you, we wouldn't have jambalya! Ok that's a looong way around the Maple tree but I think you know what I mean>

 

That's "canucks", neighbour

As for GPS being different, it sure is. It costs about 40% more, and comes with different maps.

 

edited to remove superfluous happy face.

Edited August 30, 2009 by doingitoldschool

[Mr.Yuck]

I have a Garmin Etrex Legend HCx and do most of my GC'ing in western New York. Occasionally I go into Canada but for some reason the accuracy is terrible. Do they have WAAS? I can't figure it out. As soon as I come back everything is fine again.

Any ideas?

 

What a set-up! I could sit here and crack jokes about Canada for about 2 hours non-stop. Naw, I'm local to you, and according to my profile, have 341 finds in the Province of Ontario. Works fine, no adjustments needed. I always have a WAAS signal. Good point though, WAAS is North America only. I can't say their cellphone service "works fine" though with that Rogers Network. Sorry, couldn't resist one little wisecrack.

[+CaptCosmic]

I have a Garmin Etrex Legend HCx and do most of my GC'ing in western New York. Occasionally I go into Canada but for some reason the accuracy is terrible. Do they have WAAS? I can't figure it out. As soon as I come back everything is fine again.

Any ideas?

Your GPS is getting confused because you forgot to change it to kilometers. Throws the whole thing off. That and all the satellites are 40% further away.

 

John

[aniyn]

Ya, this is pretty common. You'll have to convert your coordinates to Degrees Celsius, otherwise your location will be off.

[+TEAM HARTSOCK]

Give it a little time to adjust, however the most annoying thing with using it in the Great White North is how the GPS starts saying, "ah, hey, you hoser. The cache is over there, eh?"

[+42at42]

I have a Garmin Etrex Legend HCx and do most of my GC'ing in western New York. Occasionally I go into Canada but for some reason the accuracy is terrible.

The Canadian Satellites are way off and do not work well at all. I think it has to do with being assembled in the cold.

Plus you know those Canooks? They are always trying to trick the neighbo(u)rs to the south.

<adding that my response was tongue in cheek. I couldn't think of better neighbors. If it wasn't for you, we wouldn't have jambalya! Ok that's a looong way around the Maple tree but I think you know what I mean>

 

That's "canucks", neighbour

As for GPS being different, it sure is. It costs about 40% more, and comes with different maps.

 

And don't forget, our yardstick is 3 inches longer as well, eh.

[+hudsonfam]

lmao!!!! ok i could not help but laugh at the responses. i have been on one horrible trip to canadia, and you cant make me go back!!!!!

 

as far as the gps goes, i believe that you have to addjust from waas to waas eh. and if a local shop owner wants to show you around her crystal shop with your two youngsters in tow, -caps- run run run -end caps-.

 

i like the crown royal they make though.

-d of the hudsonfam.

[+CaptRussell]

lmao!!!! ok i could not help but laugh at the responses.

Same here, but I couldn't help but notice that out of a dozen responses, only #3 was even remotely helpful to this nice forum newbie.

[+CaptRussell]

I have a Garmin Etrex Legend HCx and do most of my GC'ing in western New York. Occasionally I go into Canada but for some reason the accuracy is terrible. Do they have WAAS? I can't figure it out. As soon as I come back everything is fine again.

Any ideas?

I have a Garmin Etrex Vista HCx, which for the purpose of your question is the same thing.

 

I don’t think Canada is your problem.

 

I regularly use my HCx all over North America with no trouble. One day I'm caching in Florida, the next day Ontario (Canada), the next day Mexico, the next day Nebraska, the next day Rhode Island. I’ve been travelling similar to that with my job every week for the nearly two years I’ve owned the HCx, which is the same way I’ve been using all the other Vistas I’ve owned and worn out since 2002. I can shut mine off, then turn it back on a week later 1500 miles away, and it rarely needs more than a minute to figure out where it is.

 

In all that time I haven’t seen any geography-related problems of the type you describe. As I’m sure you know, GPS isn’t like cell phone coverage; political lines on the map are invisible to the GPS system. Crossing the Canadian border should have no effect on your signal accuracy or positional precision.

 

(I can’t answer your WAAS question. WAAS has never really helped me and it supposedly uses up the batteries faster, so I always leave it turned off.)

 

In my experience the most common cause of degraded signal accuracy is any large thing or things that would block the satellite signals. Those super-weak signals from orbit can get through thin non-metallic stuff, but never through really big things. Nearby tall buildings, nearby steep hills, or even thick forest after a rain will block them enough to either reduce or eliminate your navigability. The HCx version works waaay better in this regard than the older, less sensitive receiver – it even works inside most buildings if you’re on the top floor – but generally it still needs a reasonably unobstructed view of at least a small part of the sky to give you a useable signal.

 

Is there anything different about the Canadian location(s) where you had the trouble, as compared to home? When you go into Canada are you using your GPS in mountainous areas or around closely-spaced tall buildings?

[Mr.Yuck]

lmao!!!! ok i could not help but laugh at the responses.

Same here, but I couldn't help but notice that out of a dozen responses, only #3 was even remotely helpful to this nice forum newbie.

 

I'm hurt by this Captain! Isn't post #8 helpful? And it is more correct than post #3, WAAS is only North America, not "everywhere". I do agree with post # 3 though, I have a crappy old Garmin myself (but not an Etrex). I once turned it off while caching in a City about 80 miles away. When I turned it on locally a few days later the dadgum thing couldn't acquire sats. I had to do a hard reset. I've heard of this happening to people that go overseas or something, but not that short of a distance.

 

Edit: I was typing this the same time as your much longer post about turning your GPS on during your travels.

Edited August 30, 2009 by TheWhiteUrkel

[+CaptRussell]

lmao!!!! ok i could not help but laugh at the responses.

Same here, but I couldn't help but notice that out of a dozen responses, only #3 was even remotely helpful to this nice forum newbie.

I'm hurt by this Captain! Isn't post #8 helpful?

You are correct. My apologies. No personal slight intended.

 

That still doesn’t change the fact that the two useful needles were hidden in a haystack of lame wisecracks. Sorry for going off topic to point that out, but it annoyed me.

 

BTW, speaking of lame wisecracks – and in the interest of full disclosure – I should remind folks that this is in fact KBI speaking. I posted here as CaptRussell only because I figured a quick click on CR’s Cache Finds via my CR profile would show the pattern of caching I described. Some folks like to follow up on that sort of thing.

 

Let the Ringbone jokes begin!

[uperdooper]

the signals in canada are degraded so us yanks can't find their strategic poutine reserves.

[+flask]

the signals in canada are degraded so us yanks can't find their strategic poutine reserves.

 

they're not hard to find; just look for the signs!

[+zoltig]

lmao!!!! ok i could not help but laugh at the responses.

Same here, but I couldn't help but notice that out of a dozen responses, only #3 was even remotely helpful to this nice forum newbie.

I'm hurt by this Captain! Isn't post #8 helpful?

You are correct. My apologies. No personal slight intended.

 

That still doesn’t change the fact that the two useful needles were hidden in a haystack of lame wisecracks. Sorry for going off topic to point that out, but it annoyed me.

 

BTW, speaking of lame wisecracks – and in the interest of full disclosure – I should remind folks that this is in fact KBI speaking. I posted here as CaptRussell only because I figured a quick click on CR’s Cache Finds via my CR profile would show the pattern of caching I described. Some folks like to follow up on that sort of thing.

 

Let the Ringbone jokes begin!

A good portion of the people would not understand "Ringbone".

Besides, if person went into a Starbucks and said they knew KBI or CaptRussell , they would still get charged for a cup of coffee. Doesn't carry a lot of weight.

[uperdooper]

the signals in canada are degraded so us yanks can't find their strategic poutine reserves.

 

they're not hard to find; just look for the signs!

they don't have signs for the strategic reserves they don't want us to find.

[Mr.Yuck]

lmao!!!! ok i could not help but laugh at the responses.

Same here, but I couldn't help but notice that out of a dozen responses, only #3 was even remotely helpful to this nice forum newbie.

I'm hurt by this Captain! Isn't post #8 helpful?

You are correct. My apologies. No personal slight intended.

 

That still doesn’t change the fact that the two useful needles were hidden in a haystack of lame wisecracks. Sorry for going off topic to point that out, but it annoyed me.

 

BTW, speaking of lame wisecracks – and in the interest of full disclosure – I should remind folks that this is in fact KBI speaking. I posted here as CaptRussell only because I figured a quick click on CR’s Cache Finds via my CR profile would show the pattern of caching I described. Some folks like to follow up on that sort of thing.

 

Let the Ringbone jokes begin!

A good portion of the people would not understand "Ringbone".

Besides, if person went into a Starbucks and said they knew KBI or CaptRussell , they would still get charged for a cup of coffee. Doesn't carry a lot of weight.

 

Why does my post say CaptRussel? Sorry, best I can do. Poor Ringbone got caught using a sock puppet account in it's most classic sense, creating a phony account to pretend to be someone who supported his position on an issue. He was outed by the cookies feature in this forum. Certainly not applicable in your case. Poor Ringbone, I'm sure he'll never be heard from again. Or maybe he's still here with another account?

[AZcachemeister]

Why does my post say 'Flatbone'?

 

Seriously, there can be no magical line of performance quality between the USA and the Great White North, eh?

There just has to be more to it than that, like overhead foliage canopy, extended time being shut off during travel, etc.