Waas

[+Milbank]

WAAS is good right?

I see it can be turned off on my Garmin.

 

Why would you want to turn WAAS off?

[+Quadcache]

It eats up batteries faster...or so they say. I don't get any better accuracy with it on so I just leave it off.

[+Mudfrog]

I hear some people swear that WAAS is fantastic, that it makes their GPSr more accurate. Tried it both ways on 2 different Garmins and i honestly cant make out a whole lot of difference. I leave WAAS off on mine, mainly because i know it uses more juice!

[+Renegade Knight]

To keep WAAS from noticably slowing down the response time/refresh rate of your GPS.

[+The Jester]

Around here it also "eats" two of the 12 channels, sometimes cutting the number satellites used.

[+writer]

If you aren't far enough south (or north if you're in the southern hemisphere), then WAAS doesn't work that well because you don't have a good enough signal. And from what I understand, if the WAAS signal is off, it can actually make results even more inaccurate than they would be otherwise.

[+briansnat]

I've seen no difference in accuracy with it on or off, so I shut it off.

[Archaeologist-PA]

So I shouldn't feel bad that all of our old GPS units aren't WAAS enabled?

[+Renegade Knight]

When you first turn it on, your EPE will increase. Once you use it for awhile you will start seeing EPE's of less than 10 feet.

[Black Mage]

I've only seen my WAAS working once, and that was near Tooele, Utah. It never works in my usual stomping grounds so usually I just turn mine off.

[+Will+Bill]

Who do you turn it off on a Meridian?

[robertlipe]

Who do you turn it off on a Meridian?

Since a Meridian doesn't have a broken implementation of WAAS, there's no reason to do so. But if you insist, there is an entry in the faq

[+bons]

Pretend I lived on the east coast and I had a great reference point in my yard and I told you my extremly accurate GPS was reading 6 feet off to the north because of the local reception.

 

Now if you lived in the same city as me, you might adjust your readings. If I spent enough money on this setup you might adjust your readings if you were in the same state even.

 

If you were in a different time zone, would you bother adjusting your GPS based on what my GPS was doing no matter how much I spent on this device?

 

That's why I turned off WAAS.

[+Stunod]

Pretend I lived on the east coast and I had a great reference point in my yard and I told you my extremly accurate GPS was reading 6 feet off to the north because of the local reception.

 

Now if you lived in the same city as me, you might adjust your readings. If I spent enough money on this setup you might adjust your readings if you were in the same state even.

 

If you were in a different time zone, would you bother adjusting your GPS based on what my GPS was doing no matter how much I spent on this device?

 

That's why I turned off WAAS.

Since most of us live near one of the WAAS ground stations (shown below), WAAS is still a viable option.

[robertlipe]

Since most of us live near one of the WAAS ground stations (shown below), WAAS is still a viable option.

Precisely.

 

But even if you're not near a WAAS station or can't pick up a WAAS bird, your GPS knows this and discards the additional data. So what's the point in explictly disabling it unless your vendor has provided a defective WAAS implementation?

[+Renegade Knight]

Since most of us live near one of the WAAS ground stations (shown below), WAAS is still a viable option.

Precisely.

 

But even if you're not near a WAAS station or can't pick up a WAAS bird, your GPS knows this and discards the additional data. So what's the point in explictly disabling it unless your vendor has provided a defective WAAS implementation?

I'm not sure the Sport Track "Speeds Up" if you disable it in the same way a Garmin GPS V will slow down a little when you enable it.

[+bons]

robertlipe:

That's twice you've talked about "broken/defective implementation". Would you like to elaborate, perhaps with a link?

Edited June 2, 2004 by bons

[+Beta Test]

The way I understand it, WAAS groundstations are used to correct and account for the disruptions on the satalite signals created in the ionosphere. So I think that if either you do not have a line of sight or your signals are not being disturbed WAAS wont do very much. Using WAAS on my Garmin has seriuosly cut the power, but i have also seen great accuracy with it on. The best places that WAAS usually works is on a large flat area that has very few obstruction.

[jdoe]

WAAS

 

http://gpsinformation.net/waasgps.htm

 

http://gpsinformation.net/exe/waas.html

 

Check it out and decide for yourself.

 

Personally... I let the GPS decide whether or not to use it (I leave it on).

Edited June 2, 2004 by jdoe

[+GOT GPS?]

I kept WAAS off on all my GPS units, Garmin and Magellan just because of those big ANGRY TREES out there.

[+Criminal]

In the truck with the amplified patch antenna,

 

On: 7' EPE

Off: 18' EPE

 

You figure it out.

 

In the woods,

 

On: 10-35' EPE

Off: 10-35' EPE

 

I think that battery consumption myth is just that, myth. As for refresh, I've never noticed any difference. I suppose if I wanted, I could see whatever I wanted to, faster or slower, if I looked hard enough.

[+wildearth2001]

I keep it off to save batteries and because I only see about a 3 foot difference in accuracy. I will turn it on when I need the best accuracy and I am in Ideal spot, no trees etc