Raystar GPS Receiver

[pierview]

My GPS became intermitent in getting fixes last fall, then stopped entirely.

In researching the problem, we took the receiver off the radar mast and opened it up to find that there is a watch type battery in there. Can't find anything in the owners manual that says what the battery does, but FYI should anyone else be expereincing problems. Take a look at that first.

In my case, that didn't solve my problem so the unit has to go back to Raymarine, but....FYI.

Chuck Parker

[LCBrandt]

My GPS failed last August entering Port Angeles, WA on a beautiful sunny afternoon. Just 24 hours earlier, at the end of a 32 hour passage from Astoria, Oregon, I was entering a very narrow cut into Neah Bay, WA in zero-zero fog, under GPS and radar. I was lucky it didn't fail then, as my handheld backup was stowed away in a boatbag well out of reach. Radar would have allowed me to proceed on in, but had I not had prior experience with this harbor I sure wouldn't have wanted to do it for the first time in those conditions.

The photo shows what an intermittant GPS failure looks like. Not only is the breadcrumb trail all over the place, but the own ship symbol is no longer pointing towards the vessel's correct direction (which at that moment was about 230M).

Next day I bought a new Raymarine Raystar 125 GPS at the West Marine in Port Townsend and installed it. The new model is HOT! Way more satellites than the old.