NavList:

I found an old Garmin handheld GPS device in a box a few days ago. I was collecting "electronic waste" to take to a recycling service. I ended up with about 200 pounds of cables, zip drives, laptops, flat-screen tvs, remotes, landline telephones (haven't had a landline since 2003), and I almost added that old handheld GPS to the collection. Instead, I changed its pair of AA batteries, and today I turned it on.

This was a basic Garmin "etrex" device. Judging from the installed firmware and other clues, it was sold in the year 2000. I had bought it from a friend in Chicago around 2005.After activating it and letting it sit with a clear view of the sky for three minutes, it acquired the satellites as expected and reported a position accurate to about 30 feet. The displayed time, however, is wrong by five seconds which corresponds to the number of leap seconds that have been added since the year 2000. There was no evidence of any of the GPS receiver "bugs" that threaten some early devices, so cheers to the engineers at Garmin, even in this relatively early GPS device.

Frank Reed