Red Satallites On Magellan Colour

[+Cushag]

I sometimes get one or two RED Satallites amongst the blue appearing on my Magellan Sportrack Colour. What are they?

[adrianjohn]

They are the sats that supply the wass/egnos correction data that give extra accuracy. If you look at the position screen when you are recieving good data from them it will say Wass or if standing still Waas Averaging. Cant decide if it is really any extra help for geocaching though.

[+MoonHerb]

Apparantly the Garmin style GPSr's put a 'D' in the satellite strength bar on the 'advanced skyview' screen.

 

I can't confirm this personally because I've never seen an EGNOS signal

[+rev n doc]

Must have a look sometime, Is there any advantage of using the advanced skyview picture? Lots of graph bars but not sure it makes much sense to me. Doc prefers to see the man "flying his kites".

 

Rev

[+MoonHerb]

Must have a look sometime, Is there any advantage of using the advanced skyview picture? Lots of graph bars but not sure it makes much sense to me. Doc prefers to see the man "flying his kites".

 

Rev

I agree, there's not a lot of point in using the advanced option. The standard one gives you all the important information :

• Ready to navigate
  
• Accuracy xx feet
  

What more do you want ??

 

Having said that, from a purely geeky ( ) point of view it's nice to know you're locked onto 8 satellites etc. . .

[+Pharisee]

Apparantly the Garmin style GPSr's put a 'D' in the satellite strength bar on the 'advanced skyview' screen.

I'm not sure what an 'advanced skyview' is but the satellite strength bars on my Legend certainly have a 'D' in them when I managed to get a signal from the geostationary birds.

[+MoonHerb]

Apparantly the Garmin style GPSr's put a 'D' in the satellite strength bar on the 'advanced skyview' screen.

I'm not sure what an 'advanced skyview' is but the satellite strength bars on my Legend certainly have a 'D' in them when I managed to get a signal from the geostationary birds.

I think 'advanced skyview' is an option in the Geko series. By default it has a 'man flying his kites' as Doc puts it.

 

 

I don't know if the other Garmin's have this 'simplified' view ?

[+Pharisee]

"Advanced" is "Normal" on my Legend !!

[+wildtrekker]

I allways have mine on advanced as I can then see how many sats are linked and how strong a signal I have. i find that even though it gives accuracy, this gives a really good idea of how much you trust the location

 

[+Naefearjustbeer]

When I first got my etrex it had the man flying his kites, I lent it to someone and it came back with the advanced screen. I dont know how it got changed but I am quite happy with it like that so am not bothered about changing it back

[+rev n doc]

Our old yellow etrex couldnt do the advanced view, but I downloaded new software (or is it firmware? as assume it goes in ROM) from Garmin site and can switch between by briefly pressing the "enter" when in normal skyview, which provides a menu to scroll through and select. To get back to normal from advanced same thing, just press enter select which option. Dont hold the enter button for long or the GPSr will think you want to mark the location.

 

As the normal already says accuracy to xxft still dont see that great an advantage.

 

Rev

[+Brenin Tegeingl]

Advanced Sky View, shows the position of the satellites to the GPSr. The centre of the inner circle is the position of the GPSr, to obtain the best accuracy you want the satellites around the edge of the outer circle. It lets you see if you are only picking up satellites from one side, decreasing accuracy. And acts as a guide to get into a better position for satellite reception. I've got to admit that I never bother with the page, just follow the Go To arrow, and when close use the cache spotting tools (the kids ).

Dave.

[+sTeamTraen]

If you get an EGNOS (or WAAS) signal, you have found this virtual cache:

 

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?ID=44600

 

Look at some of the photos of recent finds to see, for example, the "D" symbols on Garmin (Geko 201).

[+Fangsy]

If you get an EGNOS (or WAAS) signal, you have found this virtual cache:

 

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?ID=44600

 

Look at some of the photos of recent finds to see, for example, the "D" symbols on Garmin (Geko 201).

Darn, I managed to get the D's on a few of the signal bars on my Venture a few days ago too, never thought to take a photo

 

Can't get them back now!

[+stu_and_sarah]

I definitely use the advanced skyview. Sometimes there is an obstruction blocking that vital satellite. If you just move a little, you can then get a good signal. It all depends where they are in the sky at the time.

 

An interesting exercise (if you're sad, like me) is to tilt the gps so the patch antenna points to a specific satellite. You can watch its strength rise. As you turn it away, the strength drops on that one and rises on the new satellite you're pointing at.

 

The antenna 'points' in the same direction as a line coming straight out of the screen. So if you're reading the screen dead flat on, then the antenna is pointing at you.

 

Cheers,

 

Stu

[kanda1069]

Just a quick question..what with all this talk of satellites----How many of the things are there actually up there?

[+Fangsy]

Just a quick question..what with all this talk of satellites----How many of the things are there actually up there?

32 regular GPS satellites, and I'm not sure how many WAAS or EGNOS birds there are, maybe another half dozen. Sounds like a lot! But when you space 32 small specks out across the sky there are BIG gaps between them

 

I think the orbits are such that wherever you are at any time on the Earth there will always be at least 6 above the horizon. I've never seen less than 8 on my GPSr at any one time.