Garmin signal strength ??

[Moosetgoose]

Hi, I;m not very technically minded so I'll apologise in advance.

I'd like to treat myself to a Garmin GPS watch with my work bonus this year, but when I tried using map my run etc on my phone they didn't work. I put it down to the GPS signal not being strong enough, either because of rubbish phone or because I tend to run in the hills (no mobile signal).

so my question is....will a Garmin work in the hills?

any advice appreciated

[crox Graduate]

Should do, I rarely have a problem with my 610, and my bosses 620 is ridiculously accurate. Another mate ran with his iPhone and tracked 4 times the distance as I did on the same run

[moger Graduate]

i have garmin 210 and is spot on and you can upload to map my run

[Hidden]

Signal strength shouldn't be an issue on a dedicated gps device like the fr10 because they work by recieving satellite time signals. So if in open country where you can see sky several satellites should be "visible". However you can get a signal shadow in built up areas or under trees. However it hasn't been an issue for me. If you're using a gps app on a mobile they tend to be less accurate as they use mobile tower data for part of their fix which may be why you had issues.

[Oldgirl Graduate]

I used mapmyrun on my iPod Touch and although it picked up a signal easily enough it dropped it every time I ran through trees and passed a sub station. Also seemed to be disrupted if a plane flew over coming into land!! (airport is 8 miles away) I don't have any of these problems with my Garmin Forerunner 110 happy to say. It does take a little bit longer to pick up the initial signal if its a different place from my usual start (sometimes).

[Moosetgoose Graduate]

brilliant, thank you so much everyone for replying, will definitely be buying one now.

thanks again

[crox Graduate in reply to Moosetgoose]

What I would say though is, don't expect miracles. On a cloudy day they might struggle a bit and even on a good day they might go +/- 50 (usually more like 5) meters or so, but even then they'll be way more accurate more of the time than a phone.