Question About My Gps Receiver

[+ariha]

Ok, this is the thing, my Etrex gets better reception in my HOUSE, than under trees! Can someone help?

[+New England n00b]

Glass house?

 

That's a strange one...

[+fly46]

That's odd... I can't get any reception in my house or in my car with my etrex.

Of course, last time I went caching, I also got better reception once I was *in* the woods than I did before I went in.. (90+ feet before I entered, 23 when I was in there)

[+Renegade Knight]

Water blocks GPS signals. Trees contain a lot of water. Your houses roof is dry.

[+fly46]

Water blocks GPS signals. Trees contain a lot of water. Your houses roof is dry.

Which makes my gpsr readings last time even odder... The place I managed to get the best reading was next to a waterfall!

 

But the waterfall thing is helpful for when my GPSr isn't being wierd.

[+Renegade Knight]

I don't know if water will reflect a signal or not. But the patch antanea in an etrex is good near vertical surfaces where the Quad Helix in some other GPS's isn't quite as good.

 

Besides being next to a waterall gives you up to half the sky to have great reception from. Being behind the waterfall not so open.

[+briansnat]

First, do you have your GPS on long before you enter the trees? If you turn it on in the woods, or just before you enter, it will have a hard time figuring out where the sats are. I turn mine on while driving to the cache site and have it on the dashboard where it will get a good lock.

 

Second, are you holding it correctly? The eTrex must be held flat (face up with the antenna pointing skyward) for it to get good reception. If you have it dangling from your neck, or are holding it pointing downward at your side (or any other way than face up), you will have reception problems.

[ghOzt]

I get a signal inside my house all the time. Don't ask me why... I've always assumed it was because of large windows and sateliites positioned near the horizon. Kinda cool, though.

[+Waterboy]

I am not acquainted with the Etrex, but the two Garmin units we own each have a “Satellite Status Page”. (We own Rino 110 and GPS-III+.) This page will tells you which satellites are being viewed by the receiver and the approximate direction of the satellites. Using this page you may figure what materials transmit the frequencies used by the GPS units.

 

The Satellite Status Page may be identified by looking for two concentric circles on the left side of the page and two Bar Graphs on the right side.