GPS Signal

Egroeg the Niffirg said:

Has here been a problem with GPS signals this weekend?

My Magellan Meridian hasn't (and still isn't) picking up any
satellites. I'm in NI and spent the weekend in the Mourne Mts.

It's either "buggered" or we're at war =:0

GPS working fine in East Anglia

--
Nigel Cliffe,
Webmaster at http://www.2mm.org.uk/

Egroeg the Niffirg said:

Has here been a problem with GPS signals this weekend?

My Magellan Meridian hasn't (and still isn't) picking up any
satellites. I'm in NI and spent the weekend in the Mourne Mts.

It's either "buggered" or we're at war =:0

--
George
Alas poor sig, I knew it well.

My guess is your GPS still thinks you are at home and is looking for the
satellites from your last location. There should be some facility to
tell the GPS roughly where you are right now to allow it to reset and
search for the proper set of satellites.

That's all very layman's as I'm trying to remember what I saw in a
similar discussion on another forum so spologies if it's not 100%
technically accurate 🙂

"Egroeg the Niffirg" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Has here been a problem with GPS signals this weekend?

My Magellan Meridian hasn't (and still isn't) picking up any
satellites. I'm in NI and spent the weekend in the Mourne Mts.

It's either "buggered" or we're at war =:0

--
George
Alas poor sig, I knew it well.

Mine took an age to pick up Satellites in Dumfriesshire this morning ( well
over 10 minutes). Also seemed to be "more" inaccurate that usual ie, 35
metres out on a waypoint and upto 60 metres height -> Garmin Etrex.

But then again, it's not used to the sun for a while ;-)

Jhimmy

Egroeg the Niffirg <[email hidden]> writes

Quoted message said:

Has here been a problem with GPS signals this weekend?

My Magellan Meridian hasn't (and still isn't) picking up any
satellites. I'm in NI and spent the weekend in the Mourne Mts.

It's either "buggered" or we're at war =:0

My Etrex Vista is fine, but my magnetic compass went berserk!
Soon as I got it out today the needle started spinning.

I had to hold my Bowie knife close to it to slow it down a bit to take a
bearing.

It happens every April 1st!
--
Gordon H
(Remove invalid to email)

dino said:

Egroeg the Niffirg said:

Has here been a problem with GPS signals this weekend?

My Magellan Meridian hasn't (and still isn't) picking up any
satellites. I'm in NI and spent the weekend in the Mourne Mts.

It's either "buggered" or we're at war =:0

--
George
Alas poor sig, I knew it well.

My guess is your GPS still thinks you are at home and is looking for the
satellites from your last location. There should be some facility to
tell the GPS roughly where you are right now to allow it to reset and
search for the proper set of satellites.

Tried reinitializing it both at home and out. Still no satellites
being shown.

Very strange, the manual and the manufactures forum don't mention this
type of fault.
--
George
Alas poor sig, I knew it well.

Egroeg the Niffirg said:

dino said:

Egroeg the Niffirg said:

Has here been a problem with GPS signals this weekend?

My Magellan Meridian hasn't (and still isn't) picking up any
satellites. I'm in NI and spent the weekend in the Mourne Mts.

It's either "buggered" or we're at war =:0

--
George
Alas poor sig, I knew it well.

My guess is your GPS still thinks you are at home and is looking for the
satellites from your last location. There should be some facility to
tell the GPS roughly where you are right now to allow it to reset and
search for the proper set of satellites.

Tried reinitializing it both at home and out. Still no satellites
being shown.

Very strange, the manual and the manufactures forum don't mention this
type of fault.

Must be the day that's in it then.....maybe it needs "wound up"?

In message <[email hidden]>, Egroeg the
Niffirg <[email hidden]> writes

Quoted message said:

Tried reinitializing it both at home and out. Still no satellites
being shown.

Very strange, the manual and the manufactures forum don't mention this
type of fault.
--

GPS receivers can take quite a long time to re-initialise themselves,
particularly if they are moving. If you haven't already done so I would
take it outside to somewhere with a good view of a lot of uninterrupted
sky and leave it alone for half an hour or so.

There is of course the possibility (to use a medical expression) that
it's f____!

Regards,
--
Neil Pugh

In message <[email hidden]>, Egroeg the
Niffirg <[email hidden]> writes

Quoted message said:

Has here been a problem with GPS signals this weekend?

My Magellan Meridian hasn't (and still isn't) picking up any
satellites. I'm in NI and spent the weekend in the Mourne Mts.

It's either "buggered" or we're at war =:0

--
George
Alas poor sig, I knew it well.

Have you switched it on.?...........:-)

BTW I had no problems.
--
Bill Grey

In message <[email hidden]>, Gordon H
<[email hidden]> writes

Quoted message said:

My Etrex Vista is fine, but my magnetic compass went berserk!
Soon as I got it out today the needle started spinning.

Did it spin enough for a cardigan?
--
Bill Grey

Egroeg the Niffirg said:

Has here been a problem with GPS signals this weekend?

No problem this (Sun) afternoon in mid Wales.

In fact, it was the first time I noticed that the differential correction
signal was applied, although I switched it on on the unit quite a while
ago.
--
Rudi Winter, Aberystwyth, Wales

Neil Pugh said:

In message <[email hidden]>, Egroeg the
Niffirg <[email hidden]> writes

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Tried reinitializing it both at home and out. Still no satellites
being shown.

What do you mean by "reinitializing it"?

There is a way of doing a "hard reset" (press & hold Nav and Pwr
simultaneously). You can try that if you want, but that's probably not the
problem.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Very strange, the manual and the manufactures forum don't mention
this type of fault.

Probably not a fault, probably just hasn't been used for a while. It's
happened to me once.

Quoted message said:

GPS receivers can take quite a long time to re-initialise themselves,
particularly if they are moving. If you haven't already done so I
would take it outside to somewhere with a good view of a lot of
uninterrupted sky and leave it alone for half an hour or so.

Yep, that's the solution. Just sit there and wait. It can take half an hour
or more. The reason is probably that the almanac is out of date, which is
what it uses to predict where the satellites will be. It just needs to
download a new almanac, but it takes a while to do this because it has to
find the satellites first, and it doesn't know where to look because the
almanac is out of date!

It will lock on eventually, just pick somewhere with a good view of the sky
and have patience. Remember to switch it on more frequently in the future.

"Q. Why has my handheld GPS receiver not got a position fix after having
been running for 10 minutes?
A. If your receiver is new or has not been used for some time it may take
over 13 minutes to get an initial position fix. Your receiver uses an
almanac containing information on the satellite constellation to search the
sky for GPS satellites. If this almanac is out of date, it may take your
receiver some time to lock on to an initial satellite and then a further
12.5 minutes for an updated version of the almanac to be transmitted to your
receiver."

http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/oswebsite/gps/information/gpsbackground/gpswithosfaq.html

Paul
--
http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk

Rudi Winter said:

In fact, it was the first time I noticed that the differential
correction signal was applied, although I switched it on on the unit
quite a while ago.

I've been getting EGNOS corrections regularly lately, but not all the time.
Depends whether you have a clear view to the south or not. On summits I've
been getting 1-2m, but not with altitude. Of course, my 60CS uses the
built-in altimeter instead, which I can't switch off. I don't know if it
would be more accurate without the altimeter when reception is that good. I
can check the GPS altitude but it's fiddly, and I can record it in a
waypoint if I average rather than press save straight away, which I've done
a few times, but I'm yet to be convinced that altitude benefits that much
from EGNOS.

Paul
--
http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk

Quoted message said:

My Magellan Meridian hasn't (and still isn't) picking up any
satellites. I'm in NI and spent the weekend in the Mourne Mts.

It's either "buggered" or we're at war =:0

No problem on the South Coast, although at one point during my walk on Sat
the track-log recorded a couple of funny tracks where I had not been!

--
Sandy Saunders @ www.thewalkzone.co.uk
'Mountains or Mole Hills, summiting
still brings the same excitement!'

On Mon, 2 Apr 2007 09:47:12 +0100, Neil Pugh <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

In message <[email hidden]>, Egroeg the
Niffirg <[email hidden]> writes

Quoted message said:

Tried reinitializing it both at home and out. Still no satellites
being shown.

Very strange, the manual and the manufactures forum don't mention this
type of fault.
--

GPS receivers can take quite a long time to re-initialise themselves,
particularly if they are moving. If you haven't already done so I would
take it outside to somewhere with a good view of a lot of uninterrupted
sky and leave it alone for half an hour or so.

I'd left it on whilst I walked on Saturday, left it on on Sunday at
home - nothing 🙁

Quoted message said:

There is of course the possibility (to use a medical expression) that
it's f____!

I suspect it may be that way.
--
George
Alas poor sig, I knew it well.

Paul Saunders said:

Neil Pugh said:

In message <[email hidden]>, Egroeg the
Niffirg <[email hidden]> writes

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Tried reinitializing it both at home and out. Still no satellites
being shown.

What do you mean by "reinitializing it"?

Went through the menu options to tell it the country, time etc. It's
suppose to allow it to find the satellites faster

Quoted message said:

There is a way of doing a "hard reset" (press & hold Nav and Pwr
simultaneously). You can try that if you want, but that's probably not the
problem.

I may try that if I can't think of any other option.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Very strange, the manual and the manufactures forum don't mention
this type of fault.

Probably not a fault, probably just hasn't been used for a while. It's
happened to me once.

Last used at the end of February, and it came on then without
problems. I'm wondering if the change to BST may be a factor.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

GPS receivers can take quite a long time to re-initialise themselves,
particularly if they are moving. If you haven't already done so I
would take it outside to somewhere with a good view of a lot of
uninterrupted sky and leave it alone for half an hour or so.

Yep, that's the solution. Just sit there and wait. It can take half an hour
or more. The reason is probably that the almanac is out of date, which is
what it uses to predict where the satellites will be. It just needs to
download a new almanac, but it takes a while to do this because it has to
find the satellites first, and it doesn't know where to look because the
almanac is out of date!

It will lock on eventually, just pick somewhere with a good view of the sky
and have patience. Remember to switch it on more frequently in the future.

I'll leave it on for a long period to see if it finds itself.

--
George
Alas poor sig, I knew it well.

Bill Grey said:

In message <[email hidden]>, Egroeg the
Niffirg <[email hidden]> writes

Quoted message said:

Has here been a problem with GPS signals this weekend?

My Magellan Meridian hasn't (and still isn't) picking up any
satellites. I'm in NI and spent the weekend in the Mourne Mts.

It's either "buggered" or we're at war =:0

--
George
Alas poor sig, I knew it well.

Have you switched it on.?...........:-)

and off, and on, and off, and changed the batteries.... 🙁

Quoted message said:

BTW I had no problems.

--
George
Alas poor sig, I knew it well.

Egroeg the Niffirg said:

I'd left it on whilst I walked on Saturday, left it on on Sunday at
home - nothing 🙁

Best to keep it stationary while you're waiting for it to find itself. Also
best to have a clear view of the sky of course, particularly to the south,
which is where the EGNOS satellites are.

Also make sure that battery save mode is OFF.

Paul
--
http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk

Egroeg the Niffirg said:

Went through the menu options to tell it the country, time etc. It's
suppose to allow it to find the satellites faster

Also enter your actual grid ref if it allows you to, and the altitude. That
will help speed things up.

Quoted message said:

Last used at the end of February, and it came on then without
problems.

Well that's not long ago.

Quoted message said:

I'm wondering if the change to BST may be a factor.

I doubt it.

Quoted message said:

I'll leave it on for a long period to see if it finds itself.

That's your best bet.

It's also possible that the backup battery has conked out, that happened to
my brother's GPS once.

Paul
--
http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk

In message <[email hidden]>, sandy saunders
<[email hidden]> writes

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

My Magellan Meridian hasn't (and still isn't) picking up any
satellites. I'm in NI and spent the weekend in the Mourne Mts.

It's either "buggered" or we're at war =:0

No problem on the South Coast, although at one point during my walk on
Sat the track-log recorded a couple of funny tracks where I had not
been!

AH!....... but had your GPS been there :-)

In Memory Map you can get rid of Velocity Spikes - which I believe is
what they are called.
--
Bill Grey