+TreasureAllens Posted January 2, 2012 Share Posted January 2, 2012 Hello to all, My wife and I are new to the Geocaching fun. We were at Callaway Gardens over the new year weekend and yesterday my PN-60 GPS would not get accuracy below +/- 120 feet. I checked it all day - needless to say we didn't have any finds that day. Later on in the evening - magically the accuracy went to +/- 8 feet. Could this be because of interference with sun spots or overcast skies? I noticed my car GPS (Garmin 1300) jumped a street or two a couple of times telling me to turn before I even got close to the required turn. Thanks, TreasureAllens Quote Link to comment
diggingest_dogg616 Posted January 3, 2012 Share Posted January 3, 2012 Mine acted weird yesterday too (Garmin eTrex Legend). I didn't check the accuracy, but I'd get the arrow right on top of where the cache was supposed to be, start looking, not find anything, then try to get the arrow on top of the geocache again and end up in a different spot. The was acting was like I was up against a canyon wall and the signal was bouncing, but I was on top of a hill in a pretty open spot. I feel a little better knowing someone else's unit was acting funny. I am interested to find out what it could be (or if just coincidence ) Quote Link to comment
+Ed_M Posted January 3, 2012 Share Posted January 3, 2012 Mine acted weird yesterday too (Garmin eTrex Legend). I didn't check the accuracy, but I'd get the arrow right on top of where the cache was supposed to be, start looking, not find anything, then try to get the arrow on top of the geocache again and end up in a different spot. The was acting was like I was up against a canyon wall and the signal was bouncing, but I was on top of a hill in a pretty open spot. I feel a little better knowing someone else's unit was acting funny. I am interested to find out what it could be (or if just coincidence ) Y'know, I made the comment to someone that the GZ I was looking for was jumping back and forth between two spots about 40-50 feet apart every few minutes over the course of an hour and a half. Between 3 and 4:30pm EST, 1/1/12. Not what I usually see. Clear view of sky. Pretty flat land. Even for a sticky Garmin Etrex20, it should (and usually does) get pretty solid locks in a situation like that. I wasn't going to comment until someone else did -- my wife already thinks I blame too much on the GPS. Quote Link to comment
+DsrtMtnRox Posted January 3, 2012 Share Posted January 3, 2012 My Oregon did it too...Kept jumping across the road when we were looking for caches and even when we were driving down the road my tracks where showing we were to the left of the road most of the time and I have been down this road many times and never had that happen. Quote Link to comment
+Ed_M Posted January 3, 2012 Share Posted January 3, 2012 So, do we play the X-files theme or blame lightsquared? Quote Link to comment
diggingest_dogg616 Posted January 3, 2012 Share Posted January 3, 2012 Mine acted weird yesterday too (Garmin eTrex Legend). I didn't check the accuracy, but I'd get the arrow right on top of where the cache was supposed to be, start looking, not find anything, then try to get the arrow on top of the geocache again and end up in a different spot. The was acting was like I was up against a canyon wall and the signal was bouncing, but I was on top of a hill in a pretty open spot. I feel a little better knowing someone else's unit was acting funny. I am interested to find out what it could be (or if just coincidence ) Y'know, I made the comment to someone that the GZ I was looking for was jumping back and forth between two spots about 40-50 feet apart every few minutes over the course of an hour and a half. Between 3 and 4:30pm EST, 1/1/12. Not what I usually see. Clear view of sky. Pretty flat land. Even for a sticky Garmin Etrex20, it should (and usually does) get pretty solid locks in a situation like that. I wasn't going to comment until someone else did -- my wife already thinks I blame too much on the GPS. No way! Mine happened somewhere between 1 o'clock and 2'clock Mountain Time. I've used mine a lot in hiking and marking waypoints (like camp or petroglyphs) and it only acts up when I'm by a cliff wall or in a narrow canyon. I'm actually kind of happy this happened to someone else because I was a little worried that my GPS was trying to fail and need to be replaced My Oregon did it too...Kept jumping across the road when we were looking for caches and even when we were driving down the road my tracks where showing we were to the left of the road most of the time and I have been down this road many times and never had that happen. More than mere coincidence? The truth is out there! Quote Link to comment
+Ed_M Posted January 3, 2012 Share Posted January 3, 2012 Hm. Wonder if the satellite geeks were tweaking something? I mean, c'mon guys, it's not rocket science... Er... Wait... I guess it is. Quote Link to comment
+DsrtMtnRox Posted January 3, 2012 Share Posted January 3, 2012 Mine acted weird yesterday too (Garmin eTrex Legend). I didn't check the accuracy, but I'd get the arrow right on top of where the cache was supposed to be, start looking, not find anything, then try to get the arrow on top of the geocache again and end up in a different spot. The was acting was like I was up against a canyon wall and the signal was bouncing, but I was on top of a hill in a pretty open spot. I feel a little better knowing someone else's unit was acting funny. I am interested to find out what it could be (or if just coincidence ) Y'know, I made the comment to someone that the GZ I was looking for was jumping back and forth between two spots about 40-50 feet apart every few minutes over the course of an hour and a half. Between 3 and 4:30pm EST, 1/1/12. Not what I usually see. Clear view of sky. Pretty flat land. Even for a sticky Garmin Etrex20, it should (and usually does) get pretty solid locks in a situation like that. I wasn't going to comment until someone else did -- my wife already thinks I blame too much on the GPS. No way! Mine happened somewhere between 1 o'clock and 2'clock Mountain Time. I've used mine a lot in hiking and marking waypoints (like camp or petroglyphs) and it only acts up when I'm by a cliff wall or in a narrow canyon. I'm actually kind of happy this happened to someone else because I was a little worried that my GPS was trying to fail and need to be replaced My Oregon did it too...Kept jumping across the road when we were looking for caches and even when we were driving down the road my tracks where showing we were to the left of the road most of the time and I have been down this road many times and never had that happen. More than mere coincidence? The truth is out there! Why does the Twilight Zone theme song keep coming to mind? Quote Link to comment
+Ed_M Posted January 3, 2012 Share Posted January 3, 2012 (edited) Pulled this from the GPS. The green circle is where I was searching. The red circle? Where it jumped to 4 or 5 times. I'm not that quick. The long lines are where I power cycled the GPS thinking it was acting up. EDit: Or it was just a fluke, and we're all reading too much into it. Edited January 3, 2012 by Ed_M Quote Link to comment
+eusty Posted January 3, 2012 Share Posted January 3, 2012 What was the weather like? Quote Link to comment
+Ed_M Posted January 3, 2012 Share Posted January 3, 2012 What was the weather like? Light clouds. Sunny. Warm, for Jan 1st. 55 degrees. Not what you'd expect for gps-going-nuts kind of clouds and haze. I wonder if temperature gradients in the atmosphere cause GPS timing changes? Kind of like how all of a sudden my 2m radio picks up signals from -much- further than it should via tropo ducting. GPS skip? See? Overthinking it. Quote Link to comment
+ngrrfan Posted January 3, 2012 Share Posted January 3, 2012 I didn't notice anything different. My GPSrs worked flawlessly all day. Quote Link to comment
+humboldt flier Posted January 3, 2012 Share Posted January 3, 2012 Was running three 62S units and was 43 feet off between 0630 & 1115 hours ( Pacific Standard Time ) Quote Link to comment
+DsrtMtnRox Posted January 3, 2012 Share Posted January 3, 2012 The weather was beautiful! Totally clear and almost 80 degrees and my gps was off like I said before. Quote Link to comment
diggingest_dogg616 Posted January 3, 2012 Share Posted January 3, 2012 Hm. Wonder if the satellite geeks were tweaking something? I mean, c'mon guys, it's not rocket science... Er... Wait... I guess it is. No it's not. It's satellite science! Yeah, that sucked Weather here that day was perfect. No clouds, no breeze, probably in the 50's. Quote Link to comment
+JohnnyVegas Posted January 3, 2012 Share Posted January 3, 2012 My GPS was working find on the First. But then I use a Magellan Eplorist 710, no a Garmin Quote Link to comment
+joeymedic Posted January 4, 2012 Share Posted January 4, 2012 Solar flares from the sun caused electromagnetic interference Sunday evening into monday morning. Quote Link to comment
+TreasureAllens Posted January 5, 2012 Author Share Posted January 5, 2012 Where did you find this information, joeymedic? Quote Link to comment
+joeymedic Posted January 5, 2012 Share Posted January 5, 2012 Where did you find this information, joeymedic? I got it in an email from OEM coordinators (I am in public saftey)try this out www.swpc.noaa.gov/NOAAscales Quote Link to comment
+TreasureAllens Posted January 5, 2012 Author Share Posted January 5, 2012 Thanks joeymedic ! Although, I will have to peruse the website to understand it.... Quote Link to comment
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