Anyone notice a degradation of the GPS signal lately?

[PilotJosh]

I've noticed issues with both my eTrex handheld, a Garmin 150 which is installed in a plane a fly, and my friend's Garmin 90. It seems the accuracy is being reduced and I am getting inaccurate bearing info..

 

Maybe I'm crazy.. but has anyone else noticed this?

[Kerry.]

What's your approx location (within a few hundred NM will do).

 

Cheers, Kerry.

 

I never get lost everybody keeps telling me where to go

[Team Dragon Racing]

have the same here in fla our gps has been comming up with and acc of 50ft+ every day

slith

[PilotJosh]

I'm experiencing this problem all over Florida.

[kyleebrock]

I noticed I am not picking up as many satellites. Maybe it's El Nino .

 

Maybe this can help

 

GPS status

 

or

 

Link 2

 

Here is a PDF message about 2 satellites being out dated 6NOV02.

 

http://www.fs.fed.us/database/gps/news/06nov2002.pdf

 

I got it so bad that I cache my car keys in the house.

 

[This message was edited by kyleebrock on November 21, 2002 at 06:13 AM.]

[+Marky]

I'm having no problems. Then again, I have a magellen.

 

--Marky

"Everyone spends time in the darkness, dreamers learn to steer with a backlit GPSr"

[JohnyReb]

I'm in NW FL, accuracy still about 20' as usual

 

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

"Courage is being scared to death - but saddling up anyway." - John Wayne

[+eagleflyby]

I do not know this for sure, it is only a theory of mine. Maybe the Leonids (Asteroids) have something to do with this?

I realize that the biggest part of the shower is over but hey who knows....

Also, as I was reading some older articles about GPS accuracy, I was wondering what is going to happen if the war against Iraq will happen. I presume there could be a governmental temporary fuzzing of the GPS Signals.

Any word on that?

 

So Long Eagleflyby

[+GeoIA]

quote:

---

Originally posted by kyleebrock:

I noticed I am not picking up as many satellites. Maybe it's El Nino .

 

Maybe this can help

 

http://www.schriever.af.mil/GPS/

 

or

 

http://www.fs.fed.us/database/gps/welcome.htm

 

Here is a PDF message about 2 satellites being out dated 6NOV02.

 

http://www.fs.fed.us/database/gps/news/06nov2002.pdf

 

I got it so bad that I cache my car keys in the house.http://www.garmin.com/graphics/guy.gif

---

 

The .pdf does mention possible outages in Florida as well as the Northwest and the New England area.

 

[+infosponge]

Here (Tampa Bay) it seems OK, at least at the moment. I popped out to the back yard and quickly got full strength signals on 7 birds, plus 50% signal on one more, plus WAAS. Seems normal.

[+Mr. 0]

when I was on vacation in the Ft. Lauderdale area in late Oct I was having all sorts of trouble w/ my GPSr getting and keeping a lock, and the accuracy seemed off too. When I got back here to OH, it was fine, and now I'm having troubles again. I don't know that it's related to the troubles with the sats being out, or if it's just a problem with my GPSr though.

[BassoonPilot]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Marky:

I'm having no problems. Then again, I have a magellen.

---

 

Is this a new model by Garmen? Or perhaps Lowranse?

 

(No, I have not noticed a degradation in GPS reception.)

[+Criminal]

quote:

---

Originally posted by PilotJosh:

I've noticed issues with both my eTrex handheld, a Garmin 150 which is installed in a plane a fly, and my friend's Garmin 90. It seems the accuracy is being reduced and I am getting inaccurate bearing info..

 

Maybe I'm crazy.. but has anyone else noticed this?

---

 

I've noticed some degradation of the king's english...........

[dave and jaime]

i dont know if this applies but if you have the technical background to read and understand the theories discussed it makes for some interesting reading

[+cachew nut]

Actually if anything, my signal seems to have improved lately and I'm getting more full bars than ever before. I use a Magellan as well.

[Kerry.]

Even though sats 21 & 22 have died, looking at some recorded data over the past 6 days between Miami & Savannah Beach Georgia there appears not a great amount of difference and still appears the accuracy is within spec (based on this period).

 

Cheers, Kerry.

 

I never get lost everybody keeps telling me where to go

[dave and jaime]

kerry, sats 21 and 22 are dead? does the government have any replacement plans in mind and are the replacements compatible with present equipement?

[+Web-ling]

Hadn't noticed. Then again, I usually hunt GPSr-less. No degradation on my aerial photos.

 

[+koneko]

i went caching on wednesday in northern kentucky and on thursday in central kentucky. both days i had horrible readings. they jumped all over the place. i've had my little garmin etrex for 3 months now, and i've never had a problem like this. in fact, i was standing over a cache site with the GPSr on - it told me i was 48 feet away (with 18 foot accuracy). at another cache site (it went unfound) it jumped ALL over the place. very frustrating.

 

are these the types of problems others are having? what do you guys think of the meteor theory?

 

'neko

[+Mudfrog]

The other day i went out to find a cache and had all kinds of trouble getting my Garmin76 to work right. Turned it off, then back on with no help for at least 10 minutes. Satellite signals were hard to come by and when it did pick up enough signals it would point in the wrong direction. About half way down the trail it came up and worked perfectly!

 

Magellians, i know what you are thinking, but it has worked good on all our hunts until now.

[+infosponge]

So it sounds like the solution is not to use a Garmin unit for geocaching. Works for me!

[+koneko]

i don't have any more GPSrs. and i have no $$$ to buy a new one!

 

who will donate their GPSrs to me?? *pout*

 

'neko

[+shepdog]

I dont think that this is the problem but since Dept. of Defense operates the sattelites in the sky. In time of a conflict they will input faults in the system to prevent other countries from attaining accurate readings from civilian GPSs'. Therefore the only accurate GPS will be the military PLGR (precision lightweight GPS receiver). Other countries do not have dependable systems such as the U.S.

[+Team Tired Feet]

'neko,

Was that at the Li'l Lake cache? My eTrex wasn't giving me anything good there either.

 

cut.throat.red

[+koneko]

cut.throat.red, i was up in bone lick state park for coralberry, and the sith 2, 6 & 9 caches.

 

none of which i got a decent reading on.

 

today was east pinnacle.

 

frustrating, i tell ya.

 

'neko

[Kerry.]

quote:

---

Originally posted by dave and jaime:

kerry, sats 21 and 22 are dead? does the government have any replacement plans in mind and are the replacements compatible with present equipement?

---

 

There hasn't been a replacement launched since Jan 2001, as the constellation has been very healthy with a reserve capacity. Actually still can loose a few more before things really get critical. Those extra's certainly are handy but.

 

The launch of GPS IIR-8 was deferred in late October 2002 due to damage to the launch vehicle and hasn't been rescheduled.

 

GPS IIR-9 is for Feb 6 2003, IIR-10 April 6 2003 and IIR-11 August 11 2003.

 

All replacements and future replacements (about 12 of the IIR's modified as IIR-M) will be compatible with existing equipment on L1. Everything should be backward compatible even when the IIR-M's and the IIF's make available civil L2 and latter L5. However to use L2 & L5 I would imagine by then (~2006/8+) there would be some new receivers in the market.

 

Cheers, Kerry.

 

I never get lost everybody keeps telling me where to go

[+georgeandmary]

I was having satalites come and go this evening while looking for a couple of caches.

 

Then again, I suspect if you ask randomly though out the year, you'll have a certain number of people have trouble with their receivers.

 

george

 

Pedal until your legs cramp up and then pedal some more.

[+MysteryLady]

I have noticed that the GPS (Magellen sportrak) has been off lately. Both in Maryland and in Pittsburgh. It is usually very accurate but in the last month or so, everything is 50 to 70 feet off. (then again, maybe it's me!!)

[+MountainMudbug]

Yesterday and today we were out and about with the GPS and had horrible time yesterday for a few hours. Then it straightened up a bit, enough to mark a few spots with confidence. This was in Gatlinburg area.

 

Today , Not a happy caching day. Around Norris Dam, seemed to have a better lock, but still not up to the accuracy that we've come to expect from our etrex......

We were after 2 caches - found neither (one due to *whatever* and the other area closed for hunting. Dammit. Found a benchmark though, so that's something....... Dammit. But, we had our first snow flurries of the season.

 

_________________________________________________________________

Even when I've gotten there I don't know where I am.

[+newoldstock]

Solar activity (i.e. solar wind) can really mess with the quality of the GPS signals. We're just coming out of some heavy activity, which is very likely to have disturbed all y'all's GPSRs.

 

Solar Activity Info

 

*barefoot*

[+carivercpl]

Me and the Misses did a cache in an old cemetery and my unit was all over the place...I thought maybe there were "other" things at work there...

[sewersnoid]

...solar activity is a cause. My little Magellen 310 seems to work just as good or better than always. Maybe those whaky Iraqies...

 

"Having four wheel drive doesn't keep you from getting stuck- you just get stuck further from help"

[+SherwoodForest]

has actually been getting a much better signal the last two weeks, but mainly that's due to almost all the leaves being down now, and since the weather has been moderate (30s-50s) no troublesome air inversions either...

 

It feels good to actually know where I am for a change... *g*

 

"You will kneel before her in her altar in the trees" - Tara MacLean, Let Her Feel The Rain

[+koneko]

went much better than wednesday or thursdays -

 

found 8 out of 8 scheduled caches for the day, and snagged an extra virtual cache on the way home...

 

no big problem with GPS readings today - just had to keep an eye on the accuracy.

 

yay!

 

'neko

[Kerry.]

quote:

---

Originally posted by kyleebrock:

.... Here is a PDF message about 2 satellites being out dated 6NOV02.

 

http://www.fs.fed.us/database/gps/news/06nov2002.pdf

---

 

As mentioned in the doc 22 was out for a period but notice it is now back. Still 27 in the constellation.

 

Cheers, Kerry.

 

I never get lost everybody keeps telling me where to go

[+Mudfrog]

Just a note, we hit 7 caches yesterday and had no problems at all with reception. My Garmin locked on in less than a minute while going down the highway at 55 mph, after being turned off for a week and turning back on 70 miles away from the last time i used it. Not sure why I had so many problems receiving last Saturday. Maybe meteor shower, maybe sunspots,, I have no idea!!!