+Cap'n Cache Posted July 9, 2003 Share Posted July 9, 2003 Hi there, I've got a quick question. I've been living in Germany for the last year and I've noticed that it takes me GPS dramatically longer to get a solid connection. This never happened when I was in the US. Do you get better connections in other places of the world? From my knowledge of GPS technology, your location shouldn't effect it at all, but then again I don't know what I'm talking about. Alright, I'm just curious : ) -Shuko Quote Link to comment
+sandaals Posted July 9, 2003 Share Posted July 9, 2003 Well, it's not exactly a "connection"... the GPS receiver actually just "listens" to the satellites. As for your problem... I have no specific knowledge of this, but it's quite possible that the NavStar system puts more priority on the American side of the world, and there may often be fewer satellites over Europe than America. ...but that's just my best guess. Are you having an issue with signal strength, or just the number of visible satellites? Gee Enginuity - Turning great ideas into abandoned projects since 1999 Quote Link to comment
+Cap'n Cache Posted July 10, 2003 Author Share Posted July 10, 2003 It's not really a problem, it's just that it takes about 3 times as long for me to get a signal from the satellites than in the US. Once it finds them it usually has about the same accuracy, it's just getting the first reading. Quote Link to comment
+elsinga Posted July 10, 2003 Share Posted July 10, 2003 Remember it takes 30 seconds per sat to get a locked bar. If you move under an open sky (prairie), movement will not be bad. But if you are in the city or woods, it will take longer dus to the connection fading in and out. -- Robert Elsinga =8-) geocaching (at) elsinga.org Quote Link to comment
+Cap'n Cache Posted July 10, 2003 Author Share Posted July 10, 2003 I know, and that's the strange thing. I'll be in the middle of a plain and it still takes a lot longer. It's no problem really. I can always get a connection, I'm just curious if it's because of my geographical location that it takes forever. Quote Link to comment
cleahy Posted July 17, 2003 Share Posted July 17, 2003 I'm no expert here, but I DO remember that the instructions for my GPS V said that the first time I powered it up, it would take a lot longer, basically because it wouldn't know what part of the world it was in, and would have to go through a lot more possibilities in order to find the sattelites. Is it possible that yours, after your move, is now looking for sattelites that are in the US first, then eventually finding the ones in Germany, because you first started it HERE, so it thinks of the US as its default location on startup? DrMemory Quote Link to comment
+nincehelser Posted July 17, 2003 Share Posted July 17, 2003 Just a thought...do you have WAAS enabled? Maybe the extra time is due to the GPS trying to get a WAAS fix, which would be impossible in Germany. George Quote Link to comment
+Cap'n Cache Posted July 17, 2003 Author Share Posted July 17, 2003 Well, I've finally figured this one out... The entire time I was in Germany I was using rechargable batteries, which were giving less power than my good ol' Duracells. I put in some Duracells while in Germany and it got a good reading just as fast as in the USA. So, there you have it. I guess all places are probably the same. Just don't use recharables Quote Link to comment
+Cornix Posted July 18, 2003 Share Posted July 18, 2003 quote:Originally posted by nincehelser:Just a thought...do you have WAAS enabled? Maybe the extra time is due to the GPS trying to get a WAAS fix, which would be impossible in Germany. We've got WAAS over here in Europe, it's just called EGNOS (European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service). http://www.esa.int/export/esaSA/navigation.html Cornix Quote Link to comment
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