Originally Posted By: 7point82
Originally Posted By: Hikin_Jim
snip...

Well, maybe, but I've sure seen a lot of GPS failures in mountainous terrain. Down in the bottom of gullies or deep canyons and under heavy tree cover seem to be places where failure to get a fix occurs.

Recently when I was on Marion Mtn (10,600+), the GPS pointed us to a false summit. GPS's are frequently but not always good. I can't say what percentage of the time under what conditions failures occur, but they're very common. I get GPS failures multiple times every hike I go on.

Roarmeister, anything to add?


Your experience sounds similar to mine. I carry a GPS on some backcountry trips because it's an easy, quick way to verify my position IF I can get a fix. In the areas I frequently go I wouldn't be surprised if coverage was <50%. It's not unusual for me to decide that there isn't going to be enough open ground on a given trip and leave the GPS at home. I haven't tried the GPS units with built in topo maps yet so my experience is is limited to the in car units and my basic hiking model(s). Either way, I can't imagine leaving the map, compass & altimeter at home.


While out and about in the great wilds, I can usually get some pretty good accuracy even under heavy tree/brush cover. I have located caches to within 1 metre of the given co-ordinates on the GPSr in the bush although that was more luck and coincidence than accuracy. I have also used it in the mountains of Kananaskis valley south of Banff and had no problems with the high cliff ridges blocking too much signal. My 60CSx is one of the better models that doesn't suffer nearly as much as the Etrex line as it uses a helix antenna and a high sensitive receiver chip.

The newer Colorado/Oregon/Etrex H series GPSr are also very capable receivers under cover. My receiver will often pick up 8-10 channels in my home and almost always 10 or better channels outdoors. IN testing at my office tower in the middle of the bldg, I usually only get 2/3 channels because of the blockage with the structure.

Another factor is the ability to use the WAAS or ground based stations to increase the accuracy by a factor of 2-3x. In mountain cover you probably won't get WAAS reception but where I am on the prairies the nearest WAAS station is Winnipeg which was turned on last summer. The best accuracy I've noted on the receiver is 1.8 metres which is extremely good.

As far as maps go, I use both the 1:50k Canadian Topo and the North American City Navigator maps and switch to whichever makes the most sense to use. When I mentioned in my original article that I had problems with road locations - yes that has happened but it is always because of what tools the company used to generate the maps in the first place. Not every map will be bang on all the time, especially in areas of high urban development so they issue yearly updates.

When out camping, I probably don't use the GPSr as much as I will do when geocaching because I am not interested or require the higher accuracy but it is fun to create a track and then load it up in the computer or Google Earth and find out where I have been. smile The added sensors for altitude and compass readouts are bonus and satisfy my curiosity more than me using them correctly.

Anything else you curious about?