Waas

[Jagermeister]

I was perusing an thread for the sale of a GPS unit and happened to notice that one of the features that the seller listed was WAAS.
WAAS capability is available on most GPS units offered these days. But what is WAAS?
WAAS is the acronym for Wide Area Augmentation System.
Here are a couple of links that described WAAS.

http://www8.garmin.com/aboutGPS/waas.html
http://www.gpsinformation.net/exe/waas.html
http://members.shaw.ca/pdops/WAAS.html

Although WAAS is marginal in Canada as you have to have line of sight on the WAAS satellites which happen to positioned over the equator. This makes it really marginally effective in low elevations and much more effective at elevation with good line of sight to the south.
I have it enabled on the GPS units that I have as it can't hurt.

[Rodd]

WAAS is a real time correction applied to your current coordinate based on known deviations at a static point, at the same time. Most high end gps data must be post processed for these corrections to be applied to your survey data (current coordinates) I beleive satelite No# 49 and 51 are WAAS enabled satelites, and if you have those locked onto your unit, and WAAS turned on, it will correct your current position with more accuracy...

[goatdancer]

Does it also eat up batteries?

[Jagermeister]

Does it also eat up batteries?
No. It is just a signal like the others.

[goatdancer]

My GPS book said that using WAAS would use more battery power than disabling it. Has nothing to do with the incoming signal, it's the processing power in the GPS

[Iltasyuko]

My GPS book said that using WAAS would use more battery power than disabling it. Has nothing to do with the incoming signal, it's the processing power in the GPS

this is true. Turning WAAS off conserves battery power.

[Amphibious]

We use WAAS quite a bit in the IFR world. I wouldn't imagine you'd need the precision in a hunting scenario, and it does eat up batts quicker in handheld GPS's.

[todbartell]

I was told WAAS will also take longer to lock onto your position from initial start up. I have always turned it off on my Garmin

[Jagermeister]

I run it most often in my Garmin GPSMap 60CSx. I use NiMH batteries and have not noticed any increased power degradation from them. In my book, it states, battery life up to 18 hours (typical use) It further states, ".... Extensive use of screen backlight, electronic compass, and audible tones significantly reduce battery life." There is no mention of increased battery depletion using WAAS, only the screen backlight, electrtonic compass and the tones.

[Jagermeister]

Although it did not say that WAAS consumed more power in either of the manuals I have for my respective Garmin GPS', it bugged me a bit. So I contacted Garmin and this is what Garmin had to say, "More battery power will be consumed using WAAS/EGNOS and GPS+GLONASS, than with the Normal setting."
That's it in a nutshell, I stand corrected.