GPS- Lost Satelite Reception Questions?

[fleshfly]

I got a new Garmin 525 GPS last season, without the fish finder. I am very happy with it, and look forward to getting better at learning it. Occansionaly I lost satelite reception, or my position will be way off.(like showing I am on Land!) I usualy just turn it off, and comes back fine. It seems to vary from good to poor accuracy. I understand that there a lots of factors, out my control that could affect the reading. I was wondering if there was anything, within my control, I could do to reduce this error? This typicall only happens when I am close to land. Particularly when I am in the Danvers River Bewtween the Kernwood Bridge and Beverly port marina. from there it gets better. Sometimes it is fine. I even noticed that sometimes my waypoint for end/begining of the no wake zone can be a little off.

I have the Small Mushroom atena(maybe 4-5" in Height) mounted on the top of my Console, behind a small windsheild, with no T top above. The VHF atena is within 1.5 feet.

Any ideas?

[DaleH]

If that is not a WAAS-enabled GPS I could easily see where your variance could be 100' or more radially, which means you could be up to almost 200' off the 'real' point.

Your charting chip may also not be accurate as it could have been taken from older charts that were never updated. Also make sure you have the right datum configured and that your system system is correct.

Some older GPS units used serial receivers which would go from one statellite to the others in sequence and not grab all of the signals and process them as close to real-time as possible. Such older units were reasonably 'accurate' (like you're experiencing) but not precise.

Newer WAAS units (down to 15') or DGPS units (down to 5') are both accurate and precise.

[hightechtoo]

The other variable is the map itself.

Many times..I"ve been driving on a highway....look at the screen and it has me way off the road. The GPS is right....it's the underlying map that's wrong.

[SageBoy]

That unit I believe has the ability to be WAAS enabled. Scroll through your settings and make sure that is set to WAAS enabled. The Garmins I have all have that option in which case I needed to enable that specific option.

[fleshfly]

Thanks for the input everyone. -Randy