boreal jeff & sons Posted September 22, 2002 Share Posted September 22, 2002 Yesterday (Sat. Sept 21/02), around 2:30 PM (ADST), I was having a hard time with my GPS. It kept losing its position and then would take a long time to reaquire its position. Even when it didn't lose its position, it was jumping around by about 10-20 meters. I wasn't in heavy tree cover, just walking on a road. I gave up trying to find a Geocache because of it.. I don't usually have these problems and was wondering if anyone else experienced the same thing. Every hour spent geocaching is added to the end of your life Quote Link to comment
BJMac Posted September 22, 2002 Share Posted September 22, 2002 I was using my Etrex Legend Sat from 8am-5pmAtl outside Halifax and I had no problems. We would be using different satellites though. Quote Link to comment
+Olar Posted September 22, 2002 Share Posted September 22, 2002 I had the same problem on Saturday afternoon with my GPS V. Was on an organized hike in the Beaver Valley area and I think the "beep" warning of lost signal was annoying everyone as it was happening so often. I've never had it happen before. Relieved to hear someone else experienced the same thing. Cheers, Olar Quote Link to comment
+Decodoppler Posted September 23, 2002 Share Posted September 23, 2002 quote:Originally posted by Olar:I had the same problem on Saturday afternoon with my GPS V. Was on an organized hike in the Beaver Valley area and I think the "beep" warning of lost signal was annoying everyone as it was happening so often. I've never had it happen before. Relieved to hear someone else experienced the same thing. Cheers, Olar http://www.plauder-smilies.com/wavey.gif We were out on the River (St. Lawrence) on Saturday pm and for a while noticed some fluctuations... Not searching for any caches so did not really take much notice of it... Sunspots? Bad Cesium atoms who knows... Just a bad day for Geocaching. Quote Link to comment
+Decodoppler Posted September 23, 2002 Share Posted September 23, 2002 quote:Originally posted by Olar:I had the same problem on Saturday afternoon with my GPS V. Was on an organized hike in the Beaver Valley area and I think the "beep" warning of lost signal was annoying everyone as it was happening so often. I've never had it happen before. Relieved to hear someone else experienced the same thing. Cheers, Olar http://www.plauder-smilies.com/wavey.gif We were out on the River (St. Lawrence) on Saturday pm and for a while noticed some fluctuations... Not searching for any caches so did not really take much notice of it... Sunspots? Bad Cesium atoms who knows... Just a bad day for Geocaching. Quote Link to comment
+DirtRunner Posted September 23, 2002 Share Posted September 23, 2002 Yea, I was out at that time and my GPS went right into the toilet. I thought my unit blew up or something. By the time I got it back, my error was 116 Meters, it zerod back in a few minutes later but I thought for sure that that was it for my lowrance. Glad to see I wasn't the only one. DirtRunner Quote Link to comment
+Decodoppler Posted September 24, 2002 Share Posted September 24, 2002 I was out this afternoon looking for my third cache of the day and had two GPSr's in hand... both going crazy -- cache is 104 meters, 85 meters, 12 meters and so on for long enough that I called it quits... didn't have the clue with me and too many likely spots within a 104 meter radius. What's going on? Anyone have a clue? Decdoppler Quote Link to comment
+Decodoppler Posted September 24, 2002 Share Posted September 24, 2002 I was out this afternoon looking for my third cache of the day and had two GPSr's in hand... both going crazy -- cache is 104 meters, 85 meters, 12 meters and so on for long enough that I called it quits... didn't have the clue with me and too many likely spots within a 104 meter radius. What's going on? Anyone have a clue? Decdoppler Quote Link to comment
+DirtRunner Posted September 24, 2002 Share Posted September 24, 2002 I have a bad feeling that the immenent invasion of IRAQ might have sothing to do with it. It would not surprise me if the US is playing with the SA again and intends keep playing with it until this whole thing finally gets settled. Quote Link to comment
+mrcpu Posted September 25, 2002 Share Posted September 25, 2002 quote:Originally posted by DirtRunner:I have a bad feeling that the immenent invasion of IRAQ might have sothing to do with it. It would not surprise me if the US is playing with the SA again and intends keep playing with it until this whole thing finally gets settled. Well firstly, they didn't do anything with Afganistan and SA so I'm not sure why they would with Iraq. Secondly, while the Yanks need GPS in the middle of the Desert, I highly doubt the Iraqies need it or even HAVE the units to begin with!!! Rob Mobile Cache Command Quote Link to comment
mtncycler Posted September 26, 2002 Share Posted September 26, 2002 A few days before, the sun sent out a CME (coronal mass ejection) also known as a Solar flare. A few days later, it "hit" the earth and we had Northern lights and probloms with satellite reception. Radio/TV, computers, and cell phones were effected...guess the GPS units would have been effected too. Quote Link to comment
mtncycler Posted September 26, 2002 Share Posted September 26, 2002 A few days before, the sun sent out a CME (coronal mass ejection) also known as a Solar flare. A few days later, it "hit" the earth and we had Northern lights and probloms with satellite reception. Radio/TV, computers, and cell phones were effected...guess the GPS units would have been effected too. Quote Link to comment
+Decodoppler Posted September 26, 2002 Share Posted September 26, 2002 quote:Originally posted by mtncycler:A few days before, the sun sent out a CME (coronal mass ejection) also known as a Solar flare. A few days later, it "hit" the earth and we had Northern lights and probloms with satellite reception. Radio/TV, computers, and cell phones were effected...guess the GPS units would have been effected too. OK, now that makes sense. It makes me wonder if any of the caches hidden during the solar interference will be more difficult to find than intended! Later Quote Link to comment
+Decodoppler Posted September 26, 2002 Share Posted September 26, 2002 quote:Originally posted by mtncycler:A few days before, the sun sent out a CME (coronal mass ejection) also known as a Solar flare. A few days later, it "hit" the earth and we had Northern lights and probloms with satellite reception. Radio/TV, computers, and cell phones were effected...guess the GPS units would have been effected too. OK, now that makes sense. It makes me wonder if any of the caches hidden during the solar interference will be more difficult to find than intended! Later Quote Link to comment
+Couparangus Posted September 26, 2002 Share Posted September 26, 2002 Totally unrelated, but I've had my Garmin eMap completely crap out. The only thing that would bring it back to life was a complete reset. Thankfully I had all my Geocaching waypoints stored on the computer. The only time my GPS has gone erratic was during my hunt for one of Olar's caches. I waited about ten minutes and it regained its sanity. Given my knowledge of RF propagation, I do know that GPS signals are extremely weak and very little noise is necessary to wipe them out. Normally there is little noise at 1.6GHz, but as more and more electronic apparatus starts occupying the upper frequencies (over 1GHz), the noise floor gets higher and there becomes a greater likelihood of the GPS signals being obscured. Coupar-Angus Quote Link to comment
+Uniacke Raiders Posted November 21, 2002 Share Posted November 21, 2002 I'm not sure if this is the same thing but.... When I was using a C Band satellite dish for TV, twice a year (Spring & Fall) when the satellite that the dish was aimed at was directly in front of the sun we would loose the signal for a few minutes. I'n sorry I forget all the proper terminology but perhaps a GPDr has similiar problems. Paul N 44 54.474 W 63 46.979 Quote Link to comment
dave and jaime Posted November 21, 2002 Share Posted November 21, 2002 i just posted a related link in this thread, you should check it out Quote Link to comment
MadGPS Posted November 21, 2002 Share Posted November 21, 2002 quote:Originally posted by Uniacke Raiders:I'm not sure if this is the same thing but.... When I was using a C Band satellite dish for TV, twice a year (Spring & Fall) when the satellite that the dish was aimed at was directly in front of the sun we would loose the signal for a few minutes. I'n sorry I forget all the proper terminology but perhaps a GPDr has similiar problems. Paul N 44 54.474 W 63 46.979 Paul the name for this phenomenon is call a " sunburst ".This is when the sun and the satelite and the antenna on the ground are in perfect alignement.It happens in the spring and fall equinox. MadGPS Quote Link to comment
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