Normally this time of year I am out doing some early scouting for deer but that has been delayed, because I did not draw a tag for my favorite zone and the multitude of forest fires started in Northern California the 21st of June by dry lightning. But the time will come when I will be heading out in the field.
Back in May I did something that I have not done since owning a gps, I normally use a gps three to five days a week. But when I purchased a new gps I pulled the batteries from the older Garmin 76C and stored it at the bottom of a drawer. Last night I was working with a mapping program and pulled the 76C out. I loaded it with fresh batteries and found it was having difficulty receiving satellites inside, the clock was off by four hours and the date was incorrect. I never ran into this issue before because I normally actively use my units.
It was apparent the unit needed to be treated like a new unit and Initialized.” Meaning the unit need to find three or more satellites, and update it’s internal almanac from the satellite signal. I placed the unit on a deck railing and let it do it thing while I updated a mapping program on my laptop.
There appears to be some benefits in updating the almanac, this unit does not have the high sensitivity receiver but it is receiving seven satellites under the roof in our computer room. Accuracy has varied from +-7-feet to +-23-feet. I think this is pretty good reception for a non-high sensitivity unit setting under a roof. In the past the unit received a few satellites under the roof, but not this many and nor as strong.
If you unit has been setting dormant for sometime, I suggest you pull out, put fresh batteries in it, and let the satellites talk to it.
When you put it away be sure and pull the batteries, you do not want to lose your unit to corrosion.
