With winter here again, it's once again time to discuss use of the PSION in cold conditions. First the reason why we have to be careful. When you take something from a cold environment to a warm one, moisture will form on its surfaces. With electronic devices like the PSION, this can cause problems as the moisture creates circuit pathways (short circuits) and people in Northern Canada have reported that turning on the PSION blows it. The best way to avoid this is not to have your PSION in a cold environment...difficult for those of us who live with 5 months (or more) of winter. Don't leave your PSION in the cold for any length of time (i.e. in the car). Allow the PSION to warm up to room temperature for several hours (or even a day) before using it if it had been left out in the cold (even better would be to remove ALL the batteries including backup battery from your PSION to reduce the risk of short circuit as there's always power flowing through the device). Of course it's not just PSIONs that suffer from this...for instance when I worked at a video store we had to remind people to let videotapes warm up to room temperature before playing them. In your PSION's manual in the Specifications section, it will list the range of temperatures it was designed to operate at. As an example, in my Revo manual it lists the following: Operating Temperature...+5C to +40C (+41F to +104F) Storage Temperature.....-10C to +40C (+14F to +104F) So it recommends that you don't even try to use the unit at freezing or below! During the winter months, I switch from using the Revo to using my Siena (because it's cheaper to replace a Siena than it is a Revo). I keep the Siena in my pouch attached to my belt and under my coat, so my body heat can keep the unit warm in those conditions. [ Top of page ]