Question On Holding A Gps

[arsaa0um]

My son and I were discussing the GPS. Say you ar walkinjg along, geocaching following your electronic compass. How do you properly hold your GOPSand at what angle. I say it should be held at an angle with the built in antenna pointing strraight upor at an angle upright just so the GPS is readable. He says it should be held flat. I know this is a very basic question but I have not seen tnhis discusssed in any of the web info I have read. our comments please, as they would be appreciated.. It just looks to me like you would have better satellite coverage with the antenna pointing upward on the junit.

[+BlueDeuce]

What GPS do you have?

 

If I remember correctly the patch antenna like in an Etrex should be held flat. The quad-helix antenna like in a 60 should be held more upright.

[arsaa0um]

I have the 60CS

[+BlueDeuce]

Upright, but the folks in the GPS units and software forums will have to back me up.

 

Perhaps the thread should be moved?

 

Bottom line, whatever works best is what you should do.

[peter]

The Garmin 60cs and 76s/cs are a little odd in that they get the best GPS reception when held fairly vertical, but for the magnetic compass to work properly they need to be nearly horizontal.

 

While moving you can turn off the magnetic compass and just rely on the GPS to keep you going in the right direction - so hold the unit fairly upright. But when you stop and want the magnetic compass to point the way to the cache you should hold it more horizontal. In most situations the GPS reception will still be good enough when you're holding it flat.

 

If you frequently find yourself in marginal reception conditions where the vertical vs. horizontal orientation is critical then you might consider an external antenna. That way you can put the antenna in an optimum position and orient the 60cs to best see the screen and use the magnetic compass. The antennas from Gilsson work well and cost about $25.

[+Blaidd-Drwg]

I believe as others have said, that it depends upon your model of GPSr. I use the Garmin Etrex line, both the yellow and the Vista. For the pointing arrow to point in the correct direction, I must hold them flat, with the face pointing skyward. If I hold them with the top end pointing towards the sky, then the arrow invariably points in the opposite direction of where it should. So to sum up, "It Depends" . You just have to learn your particular GPSr and how it works.

[+DBleess]

As long as you're getting a decent estimated precision error (EPE), you can pretty much hold the GPS any way you please. When simply navigating to a point, the priority is being able to comfortably read and interpret the display data.

 

The quad helix antenna is fairly forgiving, and until you're at the cache and are going for pure accuracy, it won't make much difference how it is oriented.

 

At the cache, hold the gps higher and more vertical to get the antenna up over more of the surrounding cover, look for open spots in any thick tree canopy and try to get good satellite fixes through them if possible when trying to get a high precision location fix.

 

6ft epe is good on high ground open field, 15-25 in light tree cover and 30-35 in more dense cover.