Understanding the satellite options<\/p>\n
The Earth has multiple satellite networks; if the network’s coverage is global, it’s called a global navigation satellite system (GNSS). Most people think of this as “GPS,” when in fact GPS is just one of many GNSS networks in the world. The Enduro 3 watches can communicate with the following networks:<\/p>\n
Global Positioning System (GPS), owned by the U.S. government<\/p>\n
GLONASS, which is Russian<\/p>\n
Galileo, created by the European Union<\/p>\n
To some extent, you can choose which network(s) your Enduro watch communicates with, which greatly affects battery life.<\/p>\n
GPS only<\/p>\n
In “GPS only” mode, the Enduro 3 will communicate only with the US GPS network. Positional accuracy is slightly reduced, but battery life is maximized in GPS-only mode. This is the mode I use on a thru-hike when I’m navigating for 12+ hours per day, because battery life is my main concern. I have not had any navigation issues using the GPS-only mode.<\/p>\n
All satellite systems<\/p>\n
As you’d expect, in “all satellite systems” mode, the watch will communicate with all three GNSS networks discussed above. This mode uses multiple satellite networks simultaneously to determine your location. Because the different satellites are in different locations, environmental interference errors are reduced, resulting in higher positional accuracy.\u00a0<\/p>\n
You’ll also get faster positional acquisition using this mode, but it uses more battery than the GPS-only mode. For example, Garmin claims the Enduro 3 GPS-Only battery life is 120 hours (excluding solar), but drops to 80 hours in all satellite systems mode, a 33% decrease.<\/p>\n
All satellite systems + Multi-band<\/p>\n
The most battery intensive mode is all satellite systems + multi-band. Dual-frequency or multi-band systems not only use all satellite systems, but also use more than one signal from each satellite on different frequencies. In situations where the view of the sky is limited, such as in canyons or heavily forested areas, multi-band GPS proves especially useful. Positional accuracy can be improved from +\/- 10 feet to +\/-6 feet. If positional accuracy is important, this is the mode you should use.<\/p>\n
However, multi-band GPS comes with a serious battery penalty. According to Garmin, using all satellite systems + multi-band mode drops the Enduro 3\u2019s battery life to 60 hours (excluding solar).<\/p>\n
Garmin SatIQ<\/p>\n
The Enduro 3 models are also equipped with Garmin’s SatIQ technology. SatIQ automatically selects which satellite mode to use. For example, it will choose all satellite systems + multi-band if you’re in a thick forest or urban canyon, but GPS-only if you’re in an open area. This will theoretically preserve battery life while maintaining positional accuracy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Understanding the satellite options The Earth has multiple satellite networks; if the network’s coverage is global, it’s called…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":619987,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[49,48,61],"class_list":["post-619986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=619986"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619986\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/619987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=619986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=619986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=619986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}