Oregon 200 and WAAS

[+cache_n_out]

Hi All,

 

Before I bought the device I thought I would get accuracies within a few feet in in around where I live (Cincinnati) with the WAAS system. I buddy of mine who works for the city told me a couple of years ago they use it and got accuracies that good (for locating things in the field).

 

Am I not using it right (I do have WAAS turned on)? Or is it still reasonable to see 15-20 foot accuracy even though I'm definately near cell phone towers. (Maybe they all don't work with WAAS?)

 

Thanks,

 

dan

[+Native20559]

Hi All,

 

Before I bought the device I thought I would get accuracies within a few feet in in around where I live (Cincinnati) with the WAAS system. I buddy of mine who works for the city told me a couple of years ago they use it and got accuracies that good (for locating things in the field).

 

Am I not using it right (I do have WAAS turned on)? Or is it still reasonable to see 15-20 foot accuracy even though I'm definately near cell phone towers. (Maybe they all don't work with WAAS?)

 

Thanks,

 

dan

 

I routinely get accuracies of 6-10' with my Oregon 200. Make sure your "battery save" feature is "off" in settings/display. Also, allow the unit to build it's almanac by letting it sit somewhere (backyard?) unobstructed with a clear view of the sky in all directions (most?) for 20-30 minutes. Afterwards, you should get fast sat locks and "D's" in your satellite status bars (I get this inside my house).

 

Good luck.

 

N

[+StarBrand]

WAAS has absolutely nothing to do with Cell phone towers. WAAS (Wide Area Augmentation System) allows your unit to receive "corrections" from a few special geosyncronous satellites. This mostly corrects for upper atmosphere conditions that can make your reading be off.

 

Second, don't put much if any stock into the "accuracy" reading on the unit. That is what is known as an EPE (Estimated Postion Error). It is a low confidence calculation based on the current signal strength and geometry between the sats and number of sats your unit can see. Read it something like "I think the current reading is within about xx feet from the actual coordinates under the current conditons about 60% of the time." It is just a calculated guess and has little to do with reality. Each manufacturer and unit has a slight variation to the calculation. Actual accuracy could be anywhere from 3 times less to 3 times more - according to some websites.

Edited January 5, 2010 by StarBrand

[+smstext]

i often leave mine on the window sill for a few hours before going out and when loading the car up and getting ready leave it out in the garden getting all the waas satellites i can get between 7-20ft but according to many sites its only an estimate of how far the accuracy could be out.

 

When ive placed caches recently and used my oregon (and not my old extrex that i have been) ive used the averaging button and so far a lot of positive comments on how accurate the co ords were. ive checked a couple of my old caches out and re taken co ords using the average feature and found ive only been a foot or 2 out which is pretty good.

 

dont worry about it too much, you could mark a waypoint for something nearby, try it on a few different days to see how accurate it is and then put it on google maps to see how it fairs on there too.

[+cache_n_out]

Thanks everyone. Especially about the waypoint averaging. I had not noticed that button. I have 70 caches ot there so it'll help!