From your description of the area I think you may have a defective unit. I hunt in very similar terrain and have no problems with my Garmin Rino, which essentially is an Etrex with a built-in radio. I would follow the suggestions you have received about re-initializing the unit and if that doesn't work I would exchange it.

Regards, Vince

Thick ... they grow them as close as they can. Until they start thinning them its dark walking through them. After they are tinned they are about a car and a half between rows.

The other thing I thought of is, do you have it in some sort of case, or is the antenna covered at all?
The antenna is under the round logo just above the screen, when laying on its back, the antenna is facing straight up with max coverage.

I agree, I think you may have a defective unit.

In North America, in a clearcut area where you have a clear view of the sky, you shouldn't have any problem. I have a eTrex Vista and only run into problems when I get in real thick tree cover. Even then, if I stand still for a while I usually can get a signal.

How long are you waiting for a signal?

-john

As long as it takes. On one occasion I got a call on my cell phone from an employee, set down the unit on a stump, had a conversation, and still no signal.

I assumed something was wrong, but tought I'd ask before returning the unit.

Bisc.

It definitely sounds like a bad unit. I only have that trouble with my eTrex when I'm in very heavy timber and mtns in Colorado.

One interesting thing happened about 6 years ago. I actually got an incorrect reading just north of Ouray, Colorado when standing next to a large cliff. I triple checked my readings and wrote them down, and as I moved away from the cliff, about a mile or two, it corrected itself. Talk about not instilling confidence....

A GPS handheld unit calculates its position based on the time it takes to receive the satellites signal. This "time" is extremely precise. Buildings & mountains can deflect the radio signal affecting the time to reception giving you a bad reading. In such a case moving around will correct the reading.



So what you experienced there is the GPS behaving normaly. You guys should really read up on the subject if you're going to trust your life to a GPS !!!

This is a good place to start : About GPS

It sure sounds like you have a defective unit. I would definitely return it.

On the plus side, going back to the store means you get to play with more GPS units. <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Thanks for the web site, will read up on it. It was just a day hike on a marked trail, not sure where you get the "trusting your life" from...

Thanks for the info.

Thanks for all the info. I really appreciate it. Will take it out one more time, see what happens.
Bisc.