WAAS in South Texas

[+changitos]

Will WAAS be of benifit to me, in South Texas? I was looking at a FAA VPL map, which I usderstood to be something to do with WAAS, and my location was out of range of the map.

 

I may be stupid, but that is how it looked. I think I am buying a Merrigreen tonight, and the thought of 3 meter accuracy was a nice one.

[+Prime Suspect]

While you should be able to pick it up in Corpus, generally speaking it's better to leave WAAS turned off while caching. It runs your battery down faster, and can actually give you a poorer reading than without it. It's great for fishing, though.

 

"Don't mess with a geocacher. We know all the best places to hide a body."

[+Tahoe Skier5000]

I don't think you can turn WAAS off on Magellans.

 

-----------------------------------------------------------

Garmin V

[+Criminal]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Prime Suspect:

While you should be able to pick it up in Corpus, generally speaking it's better to leave WAAS turned off while caching. It runs your battery down faster, and can actually give you a poorer reading than without it. It's great for fishing, though.

 

http://img.Groundspeak.com/user/3608_2800.gif

_"Don't mess with a geocacher. We know all the best places to hide a body."_

---

 

I've had my V for over a year, never noticed any higher drain on the batteries using WAAS. I cannot figure out why people insist on believing this.

 

http://fp1.centurytel.net/Criminal_Page/

[+Prime Suspect]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Criminal:

 

I've had my V for over a year, never noticed any higher drain on the batteries using WAAS. I cannot figure out why people insist on believing this.

---

 

Gee, I don't know where that could have come from, except maybe the Garmin Operational Manual:

 

Currently, WAAS satellite signal reception requires an absolute clear view of the sky and works best when there are no nearby obstructions such as buildings, mountains, etc. In fact, you may not be able to receive or easily maintain a WAAS satellite signal until the full satellite support for this program is complete.

 

Not enabling WAAS when you cannot receive a signal speeds unit map drawing and conserves battery power.

 

But then, what would Garmin know? They only built 'em.

 

"Don't mess with a geocacher. We know all the best places to hide a body."

[+Criminal]

quote:

---

Not enabling WAAS when you cannot receive a signal speeds unit map drawing and conserves battery power.

---

 

Guess it helps if you read what it says instead of jumping to confusions.

 

http://fp1.centurytel.net/Criminal_Page/

[robertlipe]

The original question was about a Merigreen, common slang for a Magellan Meridian/Green.

 

quote:

---

Originally posted by Prime Suspect:

 

But then, what would Garmin know? They only built 'em.

---

 

And Garmin started building Merigreens when?

 

I know that lots of Garmin users repeat this, but I have yet to see one reference to this being anything other than folklore on the modern mapping Magellans. I've read reports where folks strap microammeters on the battery connections and switch it off and on can't distinguish the difference.

[+Prime Suspect]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Criminal:

quote:

---

Not enabling WAAS _when you cannot receive a signal_ speeds unit map drawing and conserves battery power.

---

 

Guess it helps if you _read_ what it says instead of jumping to confusions.

---

Perhaps you should re-read the first paragraph. With only 2 WAAS birds in the sky, it's highly unlikely you will receive a WAAS signal all the time (or even a fraction of the time in many areas), and you will be increasing the overall power drain by having WAAS turned on.

 

"Don't mess with a geocacher. We know all the best places to hide a body."

[+EraSeek]

Goodness, you guys argue over such little things.

You can't use WAAS while on battery saver mode because you need full processing power to use WAAS. That said, I have heard of someone testing how much power draw there is when WAAS is enabled, and though increased it was negligable. Not something I worry about. I use rechargables usually anyway. I do think the map redrawing is affected, but by how much I couldn't say. It always seems slow anyway.

 

I use WAAS a lot. I find it kinda fascinating. But there are times when I shut it off. When I know I can't pick it up, such as in heavy woods. Can't do a bit of good there, and probably hurts you a bit. But, when there is a chance of locking on, I use it. Why not use the unit to it's capacity?

 

PS, I often get 2 birds. When first locking on expect some delay before WAAS fully useful. It takes 12 minutes to fully update the almanac. If you lose the birds during that time, the download to the almanac takes up where you left off when you get them back again.

 

 

"See the wonderous works of Providence! The uncertainty of human things!" Geo.Washington

[+Criminal]

I've noticed that since the FAA approved WAAS for approach/landing, the signals are coming in much better from the WAAS birds. I never locked up sat #35, and only seldom was able to get #47. Now I have both locking up about 70% of the time.

 

I know the batteries will last longer with WAAS off, and negligible is a good term to describe it. Your car will get better mileage with the headlights off too, are you going to drive around at night without them?

 

Not at all meaning to be argumentative, but to advise someone to leave WAAS off to save battery power is not helpful. I’m getting both WAAS satellites almost all the time here in the PNW, and the sats are hanging over the equator. Texas should be able to get them even better, right?

 

http://fp1.centurytel.net/Criminal_Page/

[+changitos]

I bought the Merigreen. $126, new in box. Yay for me.

 

Thanks for the advice, I have lots of NiMH batteries, so battery life isn't that much of a concern. I was just wondering if I could get WAAS signal or not.

 

http://www.nstb.tc.faa.gov/vpl.html

Is that I was talking about.

[greatwhite6]

Get two sets of rechargable batteries (2ea x 2 = 4 for Magellan Meridian). Leave it on or leave it off, who cares.

 

"Faith is to the human what sand is to the ostrich"

 

><DARWIN>

L L

[+EraSeek]

Yes you can get WAAS. Thats an ineresting link. Wish I knew what VPL means. At any rate, you may need to initialize waas first to get it up nad running. With a Megellen that probably means just finding an open area and standing there until you see little "W's' or something on your sat signal bars. Usually takes about 20 mins first time.

 

With a Garmin, you go to settings and enable WAAS, then hang out in an open area and wait for the 'D's' to come up.

 

 

"See the wonderous works of Providence! The uncertainty of human things!" Geo.Washington

[+changitos]

quote:

---

Originally posted by EraSeek:

With a Megellen that probably means just finding an open area and standing there until you see little "W's' or something on your sat signal bars. Usually takes about 20 mins first time.

---

 

This is South Texas, there is nothing but wide open areas.

 

Thanks again everyone!

[+Tahoe Skier5000]

I think the fact of the matter remains that WAAS is kinda useless anyways for most GPS use. Good for zeroing in on cache locations, as long as the hider had WAAS enabled, but otherwise, it slows the map drawing rate. I can still get a good 13 ft accuracy without waas which I can easily live with.

 

Battery life means nothing to me now that I have rechargeables, but GPS performance does. I would prefer faster map draws, rather than 3-4 feet more accuracy.

 

JMHO

 

-----------------------------------------------------------

Garmin V

[+Criminal]

quote:

---

Originally posted by volks_ev71:

I think the fact of the matter remains that WAAS is kinda useless anyways for most GPS use. Good for zeroing in on cache locations, as long as the hider had WAAS enabled, but otherwise, it slows the map drawing rate. I can still get a good 13 ft accuracy without waas which I can easily live with.

 

Battery life means nothing to me now that I have rechargeables, but GPS performance does. I would prefer faster map draws, rather than 3-4 feet more accuracy.

 

JMHO

 

-----------------------------------------------------------

http://www.garmin.com/products/gps5/

 

How fast does the map need to redraw as you're walking up to a cache? Or, how fast do you walk?

 

http://fp1.centurytel.net/Criminal_Page/

[+GOT GPS?]

WAAS can be turned off in a Meridian, from the CODE menu 03. I lent out my Platinum for a couple weeks, so I cant remember how to get into the CODE menu. The Platinum works much better with WAAS off. I needed more processing power for the compass and tracking, so I keep WAAS off.

 

Also I have WAAS off with the GPS V.