Using GPS overseas

The Reigate Squires · Post by **The Reigate Squires** » 24 March 04 2:23 pm

Has anyone taken their GPS overseas? Any problems or hints?

leek · Post by **leek** » 24 March 04 3:02 pm

No sooner said than done... you now have a separate thread... You may want to edit out the stuff about GSAK...

I've used my GPS in Europe without problems... The only thing to remember is that if you're in a country that has WAAS coverage, you may want to switch on WAAS on your Meridian. That will usually increase the accuracy of the GPS. If you want to know how to do that on the Meridian let me know and I'll tell you. It's on a secret menu.

The Reigate Squires · Post by **The Reigate Squires** » 24 March 04 3:33 pm

Yes please, Leek, I would like to know...
Can you get European maps to load onto the GPS/card as well?
Am planning to visit the Old Dart (maybe even Reigate), Italy & Germany. Was considering buying a smaller, cheaper unit to take with. I have the Platinum.
(Your customer srvice, as usual, is exemplary...when do you get time for caching???)
Laurie

leek · Post by **leek** » 24 March 04 4:39 pm

OK... Here goes...

With the Platinum ON and on any screen:
<ul><li>press Menu</li>
<li>then press the direction keys as follows Right-Left-Right-Left. You should then see a small box in the middle of the screen with 2 digits in it</li>
<li>Press the <up> direction key 3 times until you see 03 in the little box</li>
<li>Press Enter and the WAAS status screen should appear</li>
<li>Press Enter to toggle the WAAS function on/off</li>
<li>Press ESC twice to get back to the original screen you were on</li></ul>
When WAAS is available you will see a small w on your satellite screen, but don't put it on in Australia as it'll get confused as there is no coverage here.<br>

There are many secret features available like this, but don't experiment as most of them do nasty things... If you want to know more about this and everything else you didn't know about the Meridian, please look here

leek · Post by **leek** » 24 March 04 4:40 pm

P.S. WAAS should be available in the UK and the rest of Europe so try it out...

Team Piggy · Post by **Team Piggy** » 24 March 04 5:05 pm

We have used and cached extensively throughout Thailand, Singapore & China using an Etrex legend.
The only thing to remember is to turn it upside down once you cross the equator, otherwise you'll appear to be heading to the cache, but will actually be heading away.

We found no real problems apart from not being able to get a decent lock in Hong Kong due to the buildings. Finally came thru though.

I left my Etrex on the parcel shelf of the car whilst driving thru Thailand, and recorded a track log of over 4000 kilometres quite happily.

So yours should work great, just remember to turn it upside down.

swampgecko · Post by **swampgecko** » 24 March 04 5:26 pm

I have used my Garmin12 in London, Washington, San Diago, San Fransisco, the middle of the Alantic and puddle jumping around the Pacific Ocean (Hawaii, Marshall Islands, Western Samoa) No problems what so ever - appart from trying to get a lock on the skygods from inside and aluminimum tube moving at 250kts at 30'000ft and you had turn your gps off before you took off and forgot to turn it back on untill half way into a 10hr flight ( it took over an hour to get a fix.)

Where you can go wrong however is if you take your aussie compass with you. You will observe a strange phenonemonem.... that I had never heard of before... I didn't know it, but compasses are balanced for individual regions of the world. When I was in California I had to tilt my compass over to about a 30 degree angle for it to work. I thought I had broken it somehow........

dcr · Post by **dcr** » 24 March 04 5:37 pm

Team Piggy wrote:We have used and cached extensively throughout Thailand, Singapore & China using an Etrex legend.

How well did things go in China? I am heading over on the 30th March but will probably take the Mag2K as it is less to loose.
cheers Darren

riblit · Post by **riblit** » 24 March 04 6:15 pm

Team Piggy wrote:I left my Etrex on the parcel shelf of the car whilst driving thru Thailand, and recorded a track log of over 4000 kilometres quite happily.

Which eTrex are you using pigsters?
My eMap gets a full track log after a couple of hundred kms. Haven't the tried the eTrex over that distance as it is not mounted in the vehicle so I tend to turn it off but then if I can get a longer track log...

leek · Post by **leek** » 24 March 04 7:25 pm

swampgecko wrote:apart from trying to get a lock on the skygods from inside and aluminimum tube moving at 250kts at 30'000ft

Oh yes... forgot to mention that...

If you have a window seat (makes it easier to get a sat lock) it's quite fun to use your GPS on the plane. Once you get a lock (which will take a little longer than normal), it's quite amazing to watch the coords ticking over very fast and you also get to contradict the pilot's estimate of height and speed, coz your instrument is probably more accurate than theirs... Watching your progress on the map can be fun too...

Be warned though... some stewardesses can get quite worried if they see you using the GPS on board (thinking that it is a phone)... I once had to send the stewardess to the pilot with an explanatory note to get permission to use it...

Have fun...

tolmh · Post by **tolmh** » 24 March 04 7:26 pm

We've used our SporTrak Pro in the US and Mexico with no problems. <FNORD>I have Magellan Euro and US basemaps if you want 'em.</FNORD>

Team Piggy · Post by **Team Piggy** » 24 March 04 8:25 pm

We are running the Etrex legend (Blue one) and have the updated firmware that gives us 1000 waypoints and a 10,000

event track log.
It filled up once on the whole trip (Aus to Hong Kong, thru china then -Bangkok- log filled whilst driving to Ubon ratachani which is about 1000 k from BKK).

I saved it to one of the 10 spots for track logs, then started another

I think it depends on how you have set the log up to track, as to how many points it stores ? And how often.

We had no problems with the etrex on the trip at all, including in china.
Strange thing is the compass on my backpack strap seemed to work ok in Hong Kong ? though maybe it was on a bit of an angle ?
Never noticed a problem with it to tell the truth ? And I used it in china and Thailand to keep bearings in the cities.

Nice subliminal message tolmh

Richary · Post by **Richary** » 24 March 04 8:47 pm

A couple of comments here...

When I first got the 4WD I bought one of the normal eTrex units. A couple of months later received another one as a present from my ex's sister from Hawaii. Didn't open it until about 3 months later when I decided to give it to my sister who was going to Antarctica. After 5 months unopened it grabbed all the sats and had a lock with a minute. Pretty impressed with all the usual doco about "have you moved x thousand km since the last time". Only opened it to do a firmware upgrade before I sent it down.

As for planes, have used mine a couple of times on flights. When caught the Virgin stewardesses have usually checked with the pilot who have asked me to turn it off. All in cruise mode, not takeoff/landing. One time on a Sydney/Melbourne flight we got caught by fog and had to do some circuits, pretty good - we were tracking within about 50 metres each circle.

I like the way they take time to grab altitude. 900+ kph at 11m off the ground is a scary thought

riblit · Post by **riblit** » 24 March 04 9:24 pm

Team Piggy wrote:We are running the Etrex legend (Blue one) and have the updated firmware that gives us 1000 waypoints and a 10,000 event track log.
It filled up once on the whole trip (Aus to Hong Kong, thru china then -Bangkok- log filled whilst driving to Ubon ratachani which is about 1000 k from BKK).

Thanks Pigsters I'll give the Vista a try, it has a similiar capacity - should be able to set it somewhere in sight of the sats. I have an old eMap mounted in the vehicle as the larger screen is easier on my eyes when driving and use the Vista for tracking down caches..

The Reigate Squires · Post by **The Reigate Squires** » 24 March 04 10:58 pm

Dear Leek
I couldn't follow your directions, but...the manual of my Meridian says you don't need to do anything to turn WAAS on, its "all ready to go".
Has anyone downloaded or bought any international maps for the Platinum?