GPS not locking in

[fivebucks]

Was out on the lake Saturday towards Garden area and my GPS would not acquire position. It would only have 3 satelites that it was trying to lock in on. Got back to camp 15 miles inland and it worked just fine and pulled in about 10 satelites. I cannot figure it out but it stopped me from finding some areas. I talked to one other guy and he was having GPS problems also. Did anyone else notice this or know what may be causing this?

[widetrack]

Lots of bad things happen out there in the Triangle.<P>My buddies wrist watch quit the last time we crossed there, and he made me throw it in to appease the Gods.

[fitzman]

The same thing happend to me on Sat. We were out in the Bridges/Knight area. I lock right on the first hump we fished in the morning and when I jumped to the next one I couldn't find it. It should have been 18' it was 32' We punched 15 holes over 150yds trying to find it, never did, went back to where we were and finished the day. I thought my unit wasn't working or something needed to be callibrated. Its weird that you had the same thing happen. I heard that the millitary can do something to the satilite signal as a defence mechanism. Maybey they were testing someting?

[Doop]

what kind of GPS's do you guys use?

[Guest]

satalites are always moving, so times can be a little hard to pick them up, especially if the weather is cloudy or worse. I am one of the worlds happiest users, and It is due to my MAGELLAN MERIDIAN SERIES (GOLD) GPS.<P>

[Mudcutter]

First of all, clouds or weather in general don't affect the performance of a GPS at all. UPS planes can land with a cardboard box in the windshield and they use the exact same GPS signals we use except the miltary can't jam them as far as I know. The Govt supposedly stopped jamming the system about 4 years ago when estimated position errors were greater than 150ft. Now on my 1997 Garmin 12 I routinely get 15ft or less. I would say you guys had some abnormality in the idea that not enough satellites were present for 2D plotting. This happens on the verge of 1 in 2500 times being that the earth is spherical and not perfectly round.

[fivebucks]

Fitzman,<BR>I talked to someone trying to find a 18' hump that I had just finished fishing off Knight. He dropped his mitten by me. Was that you? If so did you catch anything out of those holes?<BR>P.S. I have about a 1997 Garmin 12 also.<p>[This message has been edited by fivebucks (edited 03-02-2004).]

[fitzman]

Fivebucks<BR>Yep, That was us. The guy you were talking to was my buddy. I was in one of the portables. We did ok. Got some real jumbos out there and a nice mix of sauger/eyes. Nothin big except pout.

[fivebucks]

Fitzman,<BR>Glad you picked up some fish. We didn't do anything there. I guess we must be bad fisherman.