Which Unit Is Best Under The Trees.

[tater12]

I have a garmin etrex(yellow). It takes it forever to hook up under any kind of leaf cover at all. I even have trouble under heavy cloud cover. What other units would get out better under the leaves? Magellan maybe? I dont know.

[+briansnat]

Any unit with a quad helix antenna should be a bit better under the trees, but you'll need an external antenna if you want to see a major difference in reception. The Magellan Sportrak and Meridian series use a quad helix, as do Garmin's Map 60x, Map 76x, GPS V, GPS 60, GPS 72 and Rino units. The 60 and 76 series also have jacks for external antennas. I'm not sure about the other units.

 

No unit should have trouble under cloud cover. I've owned two eTrex units and have found them to have excellent reception under trees as long as they are used properly. I rarely lose a lock even under heavy tree cover and if I do its only momentary.

 

First, you should turn the unit on well before entering the woods so it knows where all the sats are. I usually flick mine on in the car on the way to the trailhead.

 

Second, the eTrex likes to be held flat, face up to the sky. Hold it in any other positon and you will not get good reception. You pretty much have hold it like a waiter holding a tray of beer. If you clip it to your belt, hang it from the laynard around your neck or just walk with it in your hand dangling at your side you probably will lose reception under the trees.

 

Holding the unit like this is OK for short hikes and cache hunts, but not really possible for long hikes. To solve that I purchased the neoprene holster from Garmin ($16) and I clip it to the top of the shoulder strap of my pack so it lays flat, in optimuim position.

Edited January 17, 2005 by briansnat

[tater12]

That would explain alot. I was with a guy that had a garmin rhino one day. He turned his on and it hooked up under the tree cover very quick, mine never did lock. Turning it on prior to entering the woods is not always practical for me. Often times once reaching my destination in the woods I will spend alot of time in that area, so leaving it on is not an option. It will have to be turned back on at some point. This is when I have alot of problem with it.

Edited January 17, 2005 by tater12

[BilgeRat]

Another thing that you might consider is one of the PC-Mobile re-radiating antennas. They operate from thier own batteries; people on here have had good things to say about them. They run about $47.00.

Tom

Edited January 17, 2005 by BilgeRat

[+JohnnyVegas]

That would explain alot. I was with a guy that had a garmin rhino one day. He turned his on and it hooked up under the tree cover very quick, mine never did lock. Turning it on prior to entering the woods is not always practical for me. Often times once reaching my destination in the woods I will spend alot of time in that area, so leaving it on is not an option. It will have to be turned back on at some point. This is when I have alot of problem with it.

I turn the GPS I am going to use for the search while on the way to the cache. Try to get a cold start under trees is just not a good plan. Some times I wonder when I find a cache with bad coordinates if the person who hid the cache only turn their GPS on for long enough to get a lock after they hid it.

[+Thot]

The 60 and 76 series also have jacks for external antennas. I'm not sure about the other units.

If the SporTrak Pro has a connection for an external antenna I haven't found it.

 

To be clear, I don't think the SporTrak has an external antenna connection.