Miami Valley Geocachers

cache_n_out · Less than 50 posting Joined: 06 Oct 2009 Posts: 5

Hi Everyone,

I just bought an Oregon 200 a week ago and the clock is running on my 30 day return policy with Bass Pro-shops.

It's worked fine so far, but one thing satellite/WAAS reception. I did some caches in a hilly deep forest east of Mt Airy and the oregon reception was about the same/maybe slightly worst than my Nuvi 205 (carried both with me.) I had hoped that the WAAS would work for the more urban caching I do (ie NOT in the Rocky mountains) and make up for the GPS receiver. I turned WAAS off and on and saw no difference.

Does anyone know if the other garmin products can support downloading logs, hints, etc like the Nuvi, Oregon, and Colorado? The GPS 60 says it can do custom POIs which I how the Nuvi stores that info.

Thanks in advance.....

cache_n_out

boydfamily · Posted: Sun Oct 11, 2009 6:05 pm Post subject:

Sorry - we use the Magellan Triton 1500 - can't help.
_________________
Getting Lost Since May 2005

ScouterDuck · Posted: Mon Oct 12, 2009 6:44 am Post subject:

Whether you know it or not, your GPRs is essentially similar to a Walkman radio. In the one case, the electronics in the unit translate EM waves flowing past it into acoustic pressure waves, that is, sounds, music. In the other, it translates those EM waves into a sphere-of-position. Intersect at least four spheres-of-position, and you have a fix. But both are receivers, having a basic antenna, reading radio waves, and sending the signal to some circuitry to use as needed.

The radio waves received by a GPSr are sent from satellites. The radio frequency used is a line-of-sight frequency, meaning there must be an imaginary straight line directly from the satellite to your receiver in order to get a signal. Things like clouds, buildings, and even trees, that intersect that straight line can interfere. Think of the weird reflections and refractions you get when viewing an aquarium from the corner. Or getting static on the Walkman. The concepts are similar.

All this is a long-winded and overly-geeky way of saying that your experience in the deep wooded area is perfectly normal, and would have been the same for any GPSr. It is a well-known and long-accepted facet of Geocaching.

There are claims that some units deal with it better than others. But I have heard both praising and cursing of the same models of the same brands, leading to my personal opinion that it has more to do with the users than the units. (A slight to those who were debating, not to you.)

Pick a unit whose display, buttons, and features are comfortable for you, and just realize you'll have great reception some days, terrible others, and nothing will change that.
_________________
On my honor, I will do my best...

Bernoulli · Posted: Mon Oct 12, 2009 2:26 pm Post subject:

I can second what scouter duck said and I would add this:

I can tell you from my own personal experience that the High Sensitivity Receivers from Garmin work better than their standard receivers. As evidence, I submit my experiences with an etrex Vista C and an etrex Vista HCX. If I take both receivers into Mt. Airy, I completely lose my signal with the standard Vista but the Vista HCX with High Sensitivity Reciever (the "H" in the HCX) continues to pull in the signal fairly well. Waas is simply an on-the-ground correction provided by reference stations here on Earth that make corrections for changes in atmospheric and ionoshperic conditions by sending correction messages to the gps receiver to make the signal more accurate. If you can't get a good signal in the forest, waas isn't going to help anyway.

I would assume the Oregon has the high sensitivity antenna already so there probably isn't much you can do...

ScouterDuck · Posted: Mon Oct 12, 2009 8:18 pm Post subject:

I may be mistaken, but I believe WAAS is still in orbit like the regular GPS, just at a different altitude. Rather, it is the "D" in DGPS, standing for Differential, that is ground-based. The D is common for airplanes and ships, but I don't know if any of the hand-held or even automobile models offer it.
_________________
On my honor, I will do my best...

Bernoulli · Posted: Mon Oct 12, 2009 9:15 pm Post subject:

ScouterDuck · Posted: Tue Oct 13, 2009 6:20 am Post subject:

Cool. I too have learned something.
_________________
On my honor, I will do my best...

ghs · Posted: Wed Oct 14, 2009 3:36 pm Post subject:

And it's not surprising that not much of a difference was noticed with WAAS enabled or disabled. Right now, the ionosphere isn't having near the effect it's capable of having (as soon as the sun comes out of its "near-coma").
_________________
Wishing I could geocache without geocaching.com.