how acurate is the altimeter?

and how often do you need to re-calibrate it

Cheers

Jim

This was discussed in May and many many times before.

http://www.outdoorsmagic.com/forum/forummessages/mps/UTN/7927/URN/5/dt/4/srchdte/0/cp/1/v/1/sp/

Just put 'vector' in the search box - but this was the most recent and you'll find it very helpful.

HTH

I have a Vector,

I guess my answer is that it's as accurate as you want to make it! i.e. the more often you recalibrate it to a known height then the more accurate it will be. Ultimately it depends on what the weather is doing and your rate of descent/ascent as to how often you are recalibrating it.

The altimeter is heavily infulenced by the barometer, so in simplistic terms, if the weather is settled then your altimeter will not be out by much if you don't recalibrate it very often in a day. If the weather is volitile and thus air pressure rapidly changing, then unless your recalibrating regularly it will give a wrong reading fairly quickly.
I would say that for it to be at all useful as an accurate altimeter and navigation devise, then the person with the map and compass should also be the person with the altimeter and setting it as often as they can. Otherwise, it's just a bit of a toy and you will quite quickly realise that it causes more confusion in pin-pointing your position than helping.


Paul

Yer, I was also thinking of saying that this subject has been discussed alot recently but was a bit too polite!!!

I don't find that mine needs recallibrating that often to keep its accuracy. Maybe 6 times on a whole day's walk (vaguely guessing here) at the most. Of course, Paul's right in that this varies and if the weather is very stable you might not need t recallibrate all that much. I find it quite useful for nagivating in poor weather or when navigating gets tricky for whatever other reason. I don't really think you need to be holding the map all day either. It's not that hard to say to whoever is looking at the map 'what height are we at' and set your altimeter while they take a bearing or fiddle with their rucsac or something.

BTW, I don't think it's impolite to point the OP to the previous threads. Quite helpful, I thought! :-)

Paul - I hope I didn't sound impolite but when posters have answered a question at length 3 times already they may be less likely to answer it again - thus leading to the questioner not getting the full answers.
That thread said all the info that anyone would wish to know really :o)

Why would you buy a gadget that you have to recallibrate 6 times in a day?

ps if anybody wants to buy one i've got a yellow one for sale....

Because having an extra bit of information can be useful for navigating at times. Because finding out how much ascent and descent you've done on a trip can be interesting if you're that way inclined. And because recallibrating it takes about 2 seconds. Anyway, please don't take 6 times as gospel it was just a vague guess to try and give Jim some idea of what my experiences are of using one.

OK Cath, I give in.

I was only joking!

Not about having one to sell though...

Well guys

thanks for all your input, i will be using it for the first time tomorrow on the pentlands and i will let you know (if you care) how it goes and how accurate it is against my GPS, thanks again even you Paul, i wasnt aware this subject had been discussed a lot as i am new to this site, but all comments gratefully recieved however intended, thanks again

Jim

With the GPS you need to bear in mind that the vertical error is about 2-3 times the horizontal error so assuming the slope and is less than 1 in 3 you'll get a better height by taking a grid ref from the GPS and looking up the height on the map.

John

JJ Ninja Starfish

Sorry, I had no intention of my post being critical of you pointing out that this subject had been discussed already recently.

Paul

That's OK Paul, but some people think that it's very rude to do that :o)

Like the 'how do you drink/purify in the hills?' question. I've answered that so many times that I really can't be arsed to do it any more. Sorry and all that....