waas acururacy

[+FDNY260]

was was recently reading a tread about waas acuracy and people were saying what there acuracy has been, i have a sport trac color and was wondering how i see what my waas acuracy is. is it diplayed on the gpsr?

 

FDNY260

 

Never Forget 9-11-01

[+gallahad]

It is claimed by some that WAAS (Wide Area Augmentation system) accuracy can take you within one meter of your target. But the FAA (who developed the system) doesn't lay claim to anything better than 7 meters. WAAS satellites aren't as abundant as GPS satellites. There are two of them serving our part of the world - assuming you live somewhere in the Americas. With one WAAS satellite over the Pacific Ocean and another over the Atlantic Ocean, you may not always receive their signals due to conflicts with the horizon. They are in geostationary orbit so they are always over the same position with respect the earth's surface, and buildings, etc. can get between you and the satellite(s). I'm not familiar with your GPSr but some will display information re: whether they are, or are not, receiving WAAS support signals.

Check out http://gps.faa.gov/programs/WAAS/waas.htm and its links. It may help answer more of your questions.

 

"Today's truth remains valid only as long as it withstands the test of tomorrow's discoveries" - George Hicks

[+Renegade Knight]

I've seen 8' EPE with WAAS and have heard of 3' EPE with WAAS. Garmin tells you the EPE on the satalite screen. Magellan buries it somehwere but you can look it up.

[+Kealia]

I've got a Sportrak Pro and you can see if you're getting WAAS on 2 screens:

1) The sat screen which gives you signal strength. If you're getting one or both of the WAAS signals the "W" will be highlighted like the other sats you're locked onto

2) On the "Main Screen" that shows your coords and secondary datum (and the time) it will saw WAAS where it normally says "Searching for 1st sat, Averaging, etc.)

 

Hope that helps.

 

BTW, I've seen 3' EPE but I was on the beach when it happened.

 

Where I cache it's Redwoods, taller Redwoods, and thicker Redwoods so if I get anything better than 20' I'm as clappy as a ham

[+Moonbase]

I dont know about your Sport Track. I have a garmin-V And on that model you had to turn it on and leave it run for about a half and hour for it to acquire the wass signal I geuss. after that it acquires faster.once it acquires wass there is a D on the signal bars, that indicates your wass is working. Also I have found that an external antena gets a stonger signal than basic antena. But is a pain in the field.

[+BadAndy]

epe on the sportrak line at least is not a parameter that is displayed by default. You must use the menu and customize a screen to display it. I chose the waas averaging screen.