WAAS Satellites

[DavidG]

Hello all,

Longtime lurker, finally getting on the ball and posting! I'm not sure if everyone is aware of this or not, but if your GPS is WAAS-capable you should check for WAAS functionality and firmware updates. Available only in N. America, WAAS (Wide Area Augmentation System) provides GPS signal corrections that improve accuracy. The FAA recently decommissioned the two older WAAS satellites and replaced them with two new sats. You should check to make certain your receiver supports the new satellites.

Hope this is useful,

DavidG

 

[Ursidae69]

Great post. My Magellan says WAAS is enabled and when it is picking it up it shows a WAAS in the accuracy screen and the accuracy gets as low at 10 feet which is amazing for an off-the-shelf unit. I didn't know they changed the sats though, I'll look into firmware updates. Thx for the heads up.

 

[Schattenjager]

Good post - it seems that the old and new standards are 100% the same frequency, only hardware was updated. I don't yet find a firmware update either.

From the Garmin site:

WAAS consists of approximately 25 ground reference stations positioned across the United States that monitor GPS satellite data. Two master stations, located on either coast, collect data from the reference stations and create a GPS correction message. This correction accounts for GPS satellite orbit and clock drift plus signal delays caused by the atmosphere and ionosphere. The corrected differential message is then broadcast through one of two geostationary satellites, or satellites with a fixed position over the equator. The information is compatible with the basic GPS signal structure, which means any WAAS-enabled GPS receiver can read the signal.

 

[adventureduo]

Yeah our Baja540C uses WAAS and so far has proven super accurate.