Garmin Forerunner 305 Review (part 4) – Locating satellites and satellite reception

One of the main reasons I didn’t buy a GPS for running when I first bought a heart rate monitor with pace monitoring functionality was because most of the reviews I read at the time were talking about poor satellite reception in built up areas or areas with a lot of cloud cover.

However, this was a good 3 years ago now, so having read more reviews recently about the Garmin Forerunner 305 and how Garmin had improved the chip that locates the satellites, I didn’t have an excuse not to buy one anymore!

So, how do you get the Garmin Foreunner 305 to locate satellites?

This is the easy bit…. as soon as you turn the wrist unit on, the Garmin starts to search for satellites.

However, this can be a bit annoying, as if you just want to turn the unit on to look at your history of runs then you need to hit the ‘mode’ key to move from the ‘Locating satellites’ message.

What’s the satellite reception like with the Garmin Foreunner 305?

Well, I’m not in the most built up of areas – I live in the south east of the UK in leafy Kent… so although not built up, we have our fair share of cloud cover!

At home the unit takes about 1 minute to locate and fix on to enough satellites to get an efficient enough satellite reception for use. I find the best thing to do is turn the wrist unit on and leave it on my doorstep whilst I do my pre-run stretching routine. It’s then simple enough to open the door, put the Garmin on, and then run off (slowly of course to warm up!).

I also start my runs from my gym and the unit takes about the same time to find and lock on to satellites from there too (outside of course!).

How accurate is the Garmin Forerunner 305’s satellite reception?

The unit normally finds about 8 different satellites and locks on to about 3… there’s a screen to see the satellites its found and which ones it’s locked on to. You can also see the accuracy of the unit at any time. It normally says to +/- about 150 feet.

Does the Garmin lose reception during a run?

I’m yet to see the Garmin Forerunner 305 lose reception during a normal training run. On a couple of occasions it has taken maybe up to 2 minutes to initially get a reception, but then it’s been fine.

The biggest test I’ve carried out wasn’t on a run, but on a train journey from London to Bristol. I managed to locate and lock on to satellites from within the train when coming out of Paddington Station, and then kept the unit on all the way to Bristol.

Apart from when in tunnels, the unit lost satellite reception may be about 3 times on the whole journey (due to high banks to the side of the railway).

What happens if reception is lost?

As I said above, I’m yet to lose reception on a training run (just in train tunnels!), but when the unit does lose satellite reception it remembers the location of where the reception was lost and then assumes that a straight line was travelled between that point and the point at which the satellite reception was regained.

The big question…. how accurate is the unit for measuring distance?

This is obviously the biggest question on everyone’s lips before buying GPS device for running!

I can honestly say that I’m not disappointed with the Garmin Forerunner 305. I haven’t carried out a test on a track, but for the non-elite runner this unit seems to be extremely precise.

I’ve measured a mile from my house using my old Polar footpod (which had been calibrated some time ago) and with my cycling computer, and the Garmin is pretty much exactly the same – give or take a couple of yards.