Subject: eTrex Venture - info on WAAS & Map Page Detail
Newsgroups: sci.geo.satellite-nav
Date: Tue, 20 Mar 2001 00:22:40 GMT

From a phone call today to Garmin:

If WAAS is enabled, and there is an available WAAS
signal, then the Venture(not sure how true this is
for other models & brands) first needs to download
a new ionospheric model.
It will do this each day, even if you had WAAS working
the day before.
This process must be completed before the gps can
make use of WAAS corrections, and it may take 5-10
minutes for the download. The rep I talked to has
seen it take this long at their location in Kansas.
If the gps does get a WAAS signal, and downloads the
model, then for GPS SVs for which the WAAS SV is
able to provide correction information, the gps will
display a "D" in the signal strength bar.
If the signal strength is low, it appears that the
"D" is above the bar.
There is no specific indication of the WAAS SV - you
have to know it's number.

On another topic:

On page 21 of the Venture manual, the 'Page' sub-page of
the Map Setup Page is missing the "Detail" option.
This option controls the amount of detail shown on the
map page, and for the Venture(which doesn't have a
basemap), really only applies to the Major Cities info.