RE: GPS - advice please
Eric Johnson (etj@nwlink.com)
Mon, 14 Jun 1999 15:02:30 -0700
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West Wight Potter Website at URL
http://www.lesbois.com/wwpotter/
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> I was out on the Solent all weekend, Lymington/Cowes area and in sight of
> West Wight all the time (!).
>
> My Magellan Meridian XL gps (dated 1996) was having trouble locating any
> satellites at all. I have re-initialised (what a word) but still
> no action.
> The instrument has been in my nav bag all winter so I was not
> surprised that
> the date + time were wrong but this is the first time it has stayed dumb
> after a period without use. Batteries are fresh.
>
> Short of fighting thro' the instruction book I'd be glad of some
> helpful tips.
>
> Bruce Longstaff
>
> AX06 URSA MINOR
Wow. Date and time should just about NEVER be off on a GPS - they get that
info straight from the satellites. In fact, a lot of computer installations
for network time protocol use GPS receivers to synchronize the time for
large networks.
If your GPS is anything like my Garmin, it helps to fire it up now and then
(at least weekly) so it can download the almanac data from the satellites
which will help 'em boot up faster.
How was your view of the sky? typically when sailing its unobstructed...
maybe theres a problem with your antenna?