Hi Gary,

I have found a number of things can interfear with a GPS's operation.
Power lines, radar emissions, RF from your VHF or cell phone, and even
strong magnets.

Whne running south on the "Vita" we run underneath some "power towers"
crossing the river. All of my NAV goes nuts. Compass spins, GPS resets,
radar shows snow and and clutter that does not exist, and VHF simply does
not receive.

--
Capt. Frank

__c
\ _ | \_
__\_| oooo \_____
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www.home.earthlink.net/~aartworks
"Gary Warner" wrote in message
...

I recently purchased a Garmin GPS 72. Since it's not really boating
weather
here - and the trailer isn't done yet - I've been experimenting with it
in
other
situations. Last week I helped a friend of mine drive a Pensky box
truck
with a car carrier trailer (and car) from Boston to LA. We took turns
driving
and sleeping and made it in 71 hours.

ANYWAY - I took the GPS along and got some strange readings. On the
trip page it shows average speed while moving, overall average speed,
trip
odometer, etc. The other thing it shows is max speed. I've used this
in my
car and it seems to work OK, but in the truck it sometimes showed
max-speeds as high as 115 mph. The truck *could not* go over 75.

I figured this was probably some interference from being in the metal
cab, from the engine (which is under the cab) or from the radio or our
cell phones. So I moved the GPS to a spot away from the engine and
cell phones and the problem seemed to go away.

BUT - in CA we went on a 6 mile hike/walk. Again I brought the GPS and
for a while it operated normally. But by the end of the trip it showed
max-speed
as 15 MPH. I know we were only walking at 3 or 4 mph. We never jogged
or fell or anything - there is no way we got up to even 10 mph. And I
didn't have
any cell phone with me to create any interference. Though I did have a
digital
camera (off) in the same bag.

So, questions:

- Is this normal?

- Why might it happen?
(Is it innaccuracies of the GPS system, this particular model, or maybe
interference?)


- If I see that the max-speed is inaccurate, should I also assume that
the other readings (odometer, average speed) are inaccurate?



Gary