GPS problem 7/3/00

[Tom Lukas]

About noon on Monday the 3rd of July I got a message from my garmin 48XL "poor sat. coverage." Paging to the sat. screen showed 12 bars (sat.) listed but only 1 or 2 were solid. This lasted maybe 45 seconds and then everything was back to normal. Wondering if this was just a fluke with my gps, or if it happened to others??

 

[mark schaefer]

doormat

hey tom...how are you...i'm sure this was just a fluke..i don't have my handheld mounted..if i lay it down under the boom it will interfere with sat signal...i recently bought the magellan 315,...its great at 119 from west....will aquire a signal even when down below..right through cabin top......talk to ya...schaefer

 

[Rip Edmundson]

Garmin 45 on the blink

I have been using a Garmin 45 for several years with no problems until this year. I have not been able to get it to acquire a position this year!!!I went through the initialization procedure but that did not help. It never shows more than 2 sats acquired. I am about ready to send it back to Garmin for repair.I always run it plugged into a 12 volt source. It has batteries (new) but never uses them for operation.Anyone seen a GPS flake out before?Thanks.

 

[Eric Lorgus]

GPS will do this

I have a Magellan Color Trak. A few weeks ago I got a "poor satellite coverage" warning for about 5 minutes, and then it resumed normal operation. Fortunately, I wasn't shooting an ILS approach at 110 kts.There've been similar queries in the recent past. Search the archives for "sphere", as one reader explained about everything there is to know about GPS's, including why they sometimes get fluky. He explained the mathematical model, which involves intersecting spheres.

 

[Tom Lukas]

Follow-up

FYI, same happened again last weekend, four or five times during a 4 hour sail to North Atlantic Blues Fest. in Rockland Hbr., Me. Unit is plugged into 12 volt also new batt. Was told most likely a software glitch, under warr. so its been replaced. Old 45xl still performing well.

 

[bill walton]

No GPS problem down here

I was out down here in the Keys from 7/1 to 7/10 and my raytheon raystar114 never showed any lack of coverage. It is a fixed mount system feeding a Chartplotter at the helm and my PC down below so I'm sure I would have noticed a problem. I'd like to know more about the system. could all of the satellites get balled up some where with there orbits intersecting so there wouldn't be enough separation to get a fix?