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Off Topic => Ten Forward => Topic started by: IndyShark on November 26, 2006, 11:41:40 am

Title: My GPS Sucks!
Post by: IndyShark on November 26, 2006, 11:41:40 am

I used to love my GPS, but I went on a trip last week and lost the signal in downtown Chicago. It is a Garmin StreetPilot i5  These things are great, but not much fun when they don't work. Mine seems to take a long time to find the satelites and loses the signal for no reason every once in a while. Does anyone have a really robust GPS? Does it work in Chicago?

Thanks

Title: Re: My GPS Sucks!
Post by: Just plain old Punisher on November 28, 2006, 08:20:57 pm

Well, the GPS antenna needs to have line-of-sight access to the sky. Sometimes in urban enviornments the buildings block the signal. The solution could be to buy an external antenna for your GPS, or to push the existing antenna to the edge of the dashboard where the window meets the dash...giving the unit a clear view of the sky.

You could switch to cell phone based GPS units, which use both cell towers and GPS satelites to get location data. I use telenav on my blackberry, and it works great.

Title: Re: My GPS Sucks!
Post by: IndyShark on November 29, 2006, 08:18:35 pm

Thanks Punisher!

Title: Re: My GPS Sucks!
Post by: Elvis on November 29, 2006, 10:09:11 pm

I echo Puns comments. I have a Garmin gps and use an external Glisson antenna, it cuts my "acquiring" time by 2/3rds, definelty a worthwhile investment.

Title: Re: My GPS Sucks!
Post by: IndyShark on November 30, 2006, 07:15:15 pm

I will have to check it out

Title: Re: My GPS Sucks!
Post by: IndyShark on November 30, 2006, 07:21:56 pm

How and where do you mount the antenna? Do you snake the cable through the window?

Title: Re: My GPS Sucks!
Post by: Villa64 on November 30, 2006, 08:33:50 pm

I agree also... about the most you can do is antenna mounting.

Another would be to watch the environment... how much of the sky could you see?  Were you in an 'urban canyon'?  You need LOS to several satellites to get good positioning.  Also weather is a factor, and also scheduled GPS outages.  You can find GPS outages on the web.

Military aircraft use GPS embedded with an INU, the GPS providing the update, but the INU doing the actual navigating.  That helps when there is a temporary outage.