Problems while climbing mountians (hills, for those of you in the Midwest)

[Guest krepism]

I am using a bit of a relic as opposed to most people. It is the Magellen Colortrack. I noticed this weekend while locking for a cache, that while climbs a mountian, it was having a hard time figuring out where i was. i was going back and forth all over the place. I think it was because I was moving more upward than side to side. I ended up finding the cache, more by mistake than skill. I have been using this model for some time now, and I have not had a single problem, it is very precise. Do the newer models have these same problems?

[Guest peter]

This is not uncommon. The problem is partly that reception is poorer in mountainous terrain since some satellites are hidden by the nearby hills and others by trees. But the main problem is that you're moving slowly and therefore the arrow on the GPS is slower to respond to changes in your direction.

It works better if you use the GPS to get a bearing to your target and then zero in on the location using a regular compass.

[Guest garywil]

When hiking with my Garmin 12XL turned on to track and ascending or descending switchbacks it will upload to a map program on my computer and show switchbacks in track but not the same number. It must lag a little depending on how often one asks it to establish a tracking waypoint.I carry it on daypack shoulder case and it tracks great. Much better than on the hip for instance.

[Guest Krepism]

it.

[Guest Mike_Teague]

You could always get one of the DOP prediction programs (trimble has a free one at their site www.trimble.com -- in the support area I think)

 

You can enter a time/date, and it will show what SV's (satellites) will be visible, the DOP to expect, etc.. You can enter a mask for the horizon (i.e. dont use any under 30 degrees of elevation -- for the mountains, or whatever),.. you can just ask it what time of day will give you the best DOP... lots of options like that.

 

other than that, if you have a clear view of the sky (no trees), theres not much you can do about mountains

 

Trees can be partially solved by getting an external amplified (active) antenna... you'll start sucking batteries alot quicker though...

[Guest Mike_Teague]

You could always get one of the DOP prediction programs (trimble has a free one at their site www.trimble.com -- in the support area I think)

 

You can enter a time/date, and it will show what SV's (satellites) will be visible, the DOP to expect, etc.. You can enter a mask for the horizon (i.e. dont use any under 30 degrees of elevation -- for the mountains, or whatever),.. you can just ask it what time of day will give you the best DOP... lots of options like that.

 

other than that, if you have a clear view of the sky (no trees), theres not much you can do about mountains

 

Trees can be partially solved by getting an external amplified (active) antenna... you'll start sucking batteries alot quicker though...