Waas or not to Waas?

dcolumbus3 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Sep 09, 2006 Posts: 2

I have a a couple of newbie nuvi questions:
1. My nuvi 350 has the option to turn Waas off or on (default is off). Why would I not want Waas to be on? What is the downside of having it always on?
2. Turning Waas on or off does not seem to have any effect on the accuracy of the reading; as indicated on the "satellite" screen, the accuracy of the reading seems to be 15-20 feet regardless of whether Waas is on or off. Shouldn't having Waas on increase the accuracy of the reading?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Skippy · Posted: Sat Sep 09, 2006 8:18 pm Post subject:

The quick answer is that WAAS (aka EGNOS/SBAS) won't do any harm and it will make your GPS position more accurate under certain conditions.

It has to "see" the WAAS satellite which is in the South East, quite low in the sky.

I don't know if the Nuvi has a satellite screen so it's a bit of guess work to know if it's working. Go to the top of a hill or an open space (big outdoor car park) where you have a good view to the SE and wait 5 or 10 minutes to see if the accuracy improves. When it's working it claims 6 to 12 feet accuracy.

The long answer can be found in this thread. Wink

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dcolumbus3 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Sep 09, 2006 Posts: 2

Thank you for the quick and informative reply! :D

I should probably have clarified that I live in Michigan in the US; I wonder if the WAAS satellite(s) are more or less accessible from my location as compared to yours?

The nuvi does have a screen which shows the various satellites and the relative signal strength from each, eas well as a calculated location accuracy (in feet). Perhaps one is for the WAAS satellite; I will check.

So you don't think enabling the WAAS function has any negative effects such as reducing battery life? Question

zogman · Posted: Sat Sep 09, 2006 11:12 pm Post subject:

waas in the states works better than here in the uk....i beleive the sat for waas is higher in the sky in the usa than in the uk...i got down to 2-3 feet at times whilst geocaching there on vacation...in the uk the gps slows down trying to get the waas/egnos sat so i personnely would'nt recommend it here..
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swing · Posted: Sun Sep 10, 2006 10:19 am Post subject:

One downside of having it turned on is slightly reduced battery life, but I don't know by how much.

Skippy · Posted: Mon Sep 11, 2006 12:04 am Post subject:

Anita · Posted: Mon Sep 11, 2006 12:15 am Post subject:

lbendlin · Posted: Mon Sep 11, 2006 2:13 am Post subject:

Skippy · Posted: Mon Sep 11, 2006 10:02 am Post subject:

zogman · Posted: Mon Sep 11, 2006 10:34 am Post subject:

the sun in the states goes over your head whereas the sun in the uk is lower to the south, so the sats are the same in relation to the sun ..hope that makes sense... 8O
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