Gps Help Please

[Afishionado]

I am a self confessed idiot when it comes to electronics and their operation so please forgive my lack of knowledge.

I am trying to learn how to use my Garmin 76 hand held. A very nice man at Greenham Marine has reverted it back to factory settings for me, as I was getting confused byall the previous owners settings. The guy at Greenham said to turn it on and leave it in the back garden for an hour or so to enable it to aquire some satellites and it will eventualy go into a self actuated update download, I am assuming that this is good advice???????????

 

Any way my problem is (not understanding why) that in some parts of the garden, the box beeeps and tells me it can not aquire any satellites, but if I move a few feet it then finds some (3), and yet another move and it's back to none or just one. Surely the thing can not be that sensitive to me moving about within about a 20' radius? If so how the heck does it work in a moving boat or car?

 

Mad Mike

[duncan]

This unit features a built-in quad helix antenna for superior reception

 

something wrong unless you have serioulsy high solid walls around the garden.

 

first time it will benefit from a period of time to find itself but from then it runs a faster assumptive search for satellites.

 

3 sats is pretty normal, 1 should be OK.

 

0 is extremely unusual unless high walls and stationalry unit

 

 

[Swainiac]

Mikey, if its anything like my Garmin handheld, it should acquire 3d navigation, with three or more sats. Mine gets around sixteen at most, three or four at least, depending on either cloud cover, foliage from overhead trees, it acquires good signals inside cars, inside wheelhouses, ( ), so yours shouldnt be any different.

 

If I were you mike, I'd telephone Garmin in Romsey, 01794 581994, and ask to speak to Tony in the technical dept.......he is absolutely mustard. I'm sure he will help you out.

 

 

 

Rich

[Afishionado]

Mikey, if its anything like my Garmin handheld, it should acquire 3d navigation, with three or more sats. Mine gets around sixteen at most, three or four at least, depending on either cloud cover, foliage from overhead trees, it acquires good signals inside cars, inside wheelhouses, ( ), so yours shouldnt be any different.

 

If I were you mike, I'd telephone Garmin in Romsey, 01794 581994, and ask to speak to Tony in the technical dept.......he is absolutely mustard. I'm sure he will help you out.

 

 

 

Rich

Thanks for the contact details Rich.

 

The little devil has gone all contrite and has picked up about 8 sat's after leaving it to 'think'(?) in the garden for an hour??????????????

 

Now I can spend happy hours trying to learn how to use it.

 

Mad Mike

[Swainiac]

Mike, the unit acquires sats each time you switch it on, but shouldnt need an hour to initialise!!! When we were moving nuclear weapons on the RAF bases, ops would give us windows of about 20 mins or so, when the rusky satelites had passed the airfields, giving us a free space to move our shapes onto aircraft. With the number of GPS sats in orbit now, I'd be surprised if it took ten mins for one to pass, and another to slip into its vacant space!!!

 

 

Rich

[Bob F]

Different type of satellite, Rich.

 

The ones used for GPS stay in one place in the sky. This is how you get an accurate position measurement.

 

Mike, with the "older" handhelds the initial acquistion when you first ever turn it on, or after you have reset it to the factory settings, will take some time, especially if you have not told it where you are in the world.

 

If you tell it approx where you are it looks up a table (like an almanac) and knows which satellites should be in the sky, and it can then acquire the signal quicker. It knows which "signature" to look for and therefore finds them quicker.

 

Now that your handheld has found 8 or 9 satellites it knows where it is in the world (unlike some of us ) and should acquire the signals much quicker the next time you power it on.

 

BF

 

 

[Afishionado]

Different type of satellite, Rich.

 

The ones used for GPS stay in one place in the sky. This is how you get an accurate position measurement.

 

Mike, with the "older" handhelds the initial acquistion when you first ever turn it on, or after you have reset it to the factory settings, will take some time, especially if you have not told it where you are in the world.

 

If you tell it approx where you are it looks up a table (like an almanac) and knows which satellites should be in the sky, and it can then acquire the signal quicker. It knows which "signature" to look for and therefore finds them quicker.

 

Now that your handheld has found 8 or 9 satellites it knows where it is in the world (unlike some of us ) and should acquire the signals much quicker the next time you power it on.

 

BF

Thanks Bob, you are my GPS oracle

 

Not the small black floaty things Welshmen use to go down the river to the coal mines in but the hairy old geezer sitting at the top of a mountain all knowing sort.

 

A recent Tibetan expedition found the oldest and wisest oracle.

They asked him "What is life all about?"

Apparantly he said "It's 'Just a bowl of cherries"

 

Mad Mike

[crazy fred]

those satalites are called geostationary that means they stay still

[crazy fred]

mike have you tried putting it in a bucket of water yet, if not fill a bucket to the brim and imerse one hand held gps. Next after 5 mins lift out and look at screen if you have 8 satallites you'v done well if the screen is blank you know its not waterproof

[duncan]

that unit not only waterproof but it floats too!

 

[crazy fred]

so thats good when you sink at least you know where you are but you r still up to your neck in it hmmm