Was there a UK GPS sat problem?

Al wrote:
> Hi,
> I don't totally understand what affects the GS signal so appologies if
> this question doesn't make sense.
>
> On Saturday (Aug 30th) evening, I was in my car using my Tomtom sw.
> Navman 3000 sleeve, and a re-radiating aerial sitting on the
> dashboard.
>
> I couldn't get a fix. I was getting around 2/3 sats but at low
> power(?) i.e. Tomtom wasn't displaying them with a red bar. Every time
> I did get a fix, I would loose it after a minute or so. TT was picking
> up some signals but aga
>
> On a 140 mile round trip journey - it was a frustrating experience.
> The next day - the same set up worked fine. Could there have been some
> sort of atmospheric interference? There weren't any clouds in the sky.
>
> The sat display on TT showed that when it did pick up some sat
> signals, they were bunched together in one area of the compass display
> (I think East). Should the receiver be able to pick up a variety of
> signals across the sky?

No general satellite issue but there could be any number of localised
causes. With TTNav when this happens I advise a soft reset. Ofetn then
signal strength will immediately improve and you will aquire a sat lock. As
for the '[bunching' of satellites, this suggests that it's (the GPS
Receiver) view of the sky was better in that direction and hence it could
see more satellites in that area.
--
Darren Griffin
Contributing Editor
http://www.pocketgps.co.uk