external antenna to boost GPS Signal?

[+Atlas Cached]

1 hour ago, MartyBartfast said:

I don't think that's correct, phones can use cell tower  and wi-fi triangulation to help them get a quicker initial fix on the GPS location, also some phones can fall back to cell tower and wi-fi triangulation if there is no GPS signal available, but  they don't use either once they have an active GPS fix - they're just using the GPS as a GPSr would do.

 

Yes, but when most phones do not have those additional signals initially, the GPS fix can take a lot longer, and frequently is never as good as a dedicated GPSr.

[+Atlas Cached]

1 hour ago, MartyBartfast said:

AFAIK the Oregon's and other Garmins have wi-fi and Bluetooth, so you can only be spontaneous if you're within a hundred metres or so of a wi-fi hotspot - that's not really any where, any time - certainly not as flexible as a phone, which though limited by cell phone coverage it's still much more available than wi-fi hotspots.

 

GCLive also works through your smart phone Bluetooth connection, so, if you can spontaneously load geocache data on your phone, you can also load geocache data to your GCLive enabled Garmin GPSr.

 

Nice try, though.

[+MartyBartfast]

2 hours ago, Atlas Cached said:

GCLive also works through your smart phone Bluetooth connection,

So in order to "spontaneously" load caches to the expensive Garmin you have to use a phone? - might as well cut out the extra link  and just use the phone for caching then and save yourself a few $$$.

[+kunarion]

38 minutes ago, MartyBartfast said:

So in order to "spontaneously" load caches to the expensive Garmin you have to use a phone? - might as well cut out the extra link  and just use the phone for caching then and save yourself a few $$$.

 

The App doesn't work well on my phone, so I'd need to spend $$$ to use a phone.  The Apps in general are flakey (OK, sure, Garmin is working hard to make their GPSs become hip and trendy like Apps).  I don't like opening The App (any such App) and discovering it "updated" and there's a missing parameter, or now it points to the uncorrected coords or whatever.  And I don't like to keep switching Apps to see which one has fewer bugs today..  If a Garmin handheld is 300 feet off and points 180 degrees out, Garmin fixes that fast, it's not unaddressed for 3 years and counting for A Phone App.  Saving $$$ is cool, but there are other considerations.

 

For now, I don't need A Phone to live-load caches, and I don't even need the caches "Live" (caches don't change that often).  If I wake up and discover that I'm 90 miles from where I planned to be, I can visit a Hotspot (they're all over the place), load the entire town and go.  Otherwise, I can load it from the PC at home before I go.

 

 

Edited April 19, 2021 by kunarion