Is Someone Messing With The Satellites Or What?

[+JohnnyRotten]

I went out caching with two friends today, and I have two eTrex GPS units, one Vista and one Venture. At various times, under open skies, no trees or clouds, both units would just go blank, and then they would have to re-acquire the sats again. I was wondering if anyone else noticed the same thing. BTW, my one friend had a Magellan, and did not seem to have that problem. This happened three times between 1100hrs and 1330hrs. EDT. Very strange. Also, I noted that the GPS was reporting an accuracy of about 170 feet. After a few minutes it would settle down, but I never saw it do anything like that before.

 

Johnny Rotten

Edited July 8, 2004 by JohnnyRotten

[+briansnat]

TW, my one friend had a Magellan, and did not seem to have that problem

 

Magelllans don't tell you right away if they lose their lock, so it may well have happened with the Magellan too, but you didn't notice.

[koz]

funny you mention this...i was out in wyoming last week and you can't get a much cleare view of the sky than that and had the same thing happen...homeland security? aliens?...election pranks?

[+Team Shibby]

This may have just been a time of day when satellite geometry was at its poorest and your garmin receiver has alerted you immediately, however, like Brian mentioned, Magellan will not do this by default. Magellan continues to average the path you have been taking and just keeps pointing you in that direction till it gets its signal back. There might be a way to turn this off, but I'm not positive.

 

Kar

[mortonfox]

Or... the GPS units just overheated because you were out in the midday sun for too long. I notice that happening if I leave my eTrex Legend on the dashboard while driving.

[+Natureboy44]

I had the same problem a few weeks back. See this thread.

 

Satellite Glitch, GPSr Problems, or Aliens

[+dhenninger]

Went caching last week (6/28) with Mom (first time with GPS) and my sister (Used GPS only a few times). Our GPSrs all point to different places up to .35 in the wrong direction. We all had Identical etrex Legends. Very frustrating for new people. Luckily they were looking for one of my caches.

 

Dave

Edited July 9, 2004 by dhenning25

[+JMBella]

TW, my one friend had a Magellan, and did not seem to have that problem

 

Magelllans don't tell you right away if they lose their lock, so it may well have happened with the Magellan too, but you didn't notice.

Has anyone come up with a name for that like the Magellan drag or The Magellan slingshot? I have to slow down or stop when I get to within 50 feet of ground zero and wait for the GPS to catch up to itself.

 

[on topic] It's happened to me a few times, usually in the same area. For some reason the North Shore of LI seems to get a little freaky. One time my GPS insisted that I was 20 miles inside CT. I think it's aliens and I keep forgetting to bring my foil hat. [/on topic]

[+Planet]

Went caching last week (6/28) with Mom (first time with GPS) and my sister (Used GPS only a few times). Our GPSrs all point to different places up to .35 in the wrong direction. We all had Identical Magellan Legends. Very frustrating for new people. Luckily they were looking for one of my caches.

 

Dave

Magellan makes a Legend too?

[+dhenninger]

Went caching last week (6/28) with Mom (first time with GPS) and my sister (Used GPS only a few times). Our GPSrs all point to different places up to .35 in the wrong direction. We all had Identical Magellan Legends. Very frustrating for new people. Luckily they were looking for one of my caches.

 

Dave

Magellan makes a Legend too?

Dohh! Fixed my error, I have two magellan gps (old, but still kinda working) and my etrex legend (garmin). Got the manufacturers mixed up.

 

Dave

[ucmike]

the last couple times i used my magellan it won't count down to less than 15'. i keep an eye on the xte and i've noticed that when the error and distance numbers are about the same i'm pretty close, no matter what the numbers say. if they are about the same i'm usually near the cache, or whatever i'm looking for.

 

it never did that before. i'm wondering if its just got some mileage on it now and maybe isn't as accurate as it once was or if there's something different about the signal. (i like conspiracies and i would love to believe this is the gov'ts doing)