Do Power Lines Affect Gpsrs?

[+Thot]

With two different caches within a week I had a problem that the GPSr would not settle down. First it would lead to here, then there, then over there. The full circle of these locations was probably no more than 30 feet, but it would lead a location and hold there for maybe a minute before deciding it was another. I didn’t seem to drift from one place to another, rather is seemed to jump from place to place. I don’t typically see this kind of behavior. After I arrive at a location the gadget usually requires some settling time during which it drifts (not jumps) from place to place, but after it settles out it usually continues to indicate the same location.

 

In both cases this happened where there were power lines overhead. Other than that they seemed like ordinary areas. No particularly large buildings and no buildings nearby, etc. The EPEs were lower than the scatter of locations.

[+Renegade Knight]

My understanding is that yes they do. Especially the high voltage lines.

 

Where this came into play is a cache I set that was under a tree, by a rock face and all of that under a canopy of high power lines near a power sub station. Normally I don't get complaints about the coordinates of my caches, but in this case everybody complained.

[+tirediron]

Yes, they do. Especially the higher voltage lines create fairly strong electromagnet fields around the wires, and putting the physics aside, it can really ****** up a GPSr. Just walk under one with a portable radio....

[+Thot]

Well, that probably explains what happened. These weren't lines running between giant transmission towers, but there were large transformers on the poles these lines ran to. In one case there were two large transformers side by side. So, the lines must have carried high voltage, even if not H*I*G*H voltage.

 

Thanks.

Edited August 21, 2004 by Thot

[eggman7360]

These may have been substation switches too . Normally the lines can be identified top to bottom on the poles> top substation tie(high voltage and capacity) next down is local distribution. 3>secondary distribution(to houses,street lights etc.) 4>telephone,fiber optic. 5cable tv This system may start with local distribution on top of poles without substation ties, power transmission(as opposed to distribution) is usually (always) on steel towers.

[gm100guy]

Try here about this subject

 

Edited August 22, 2004 by gm100guy