GPS

[BUZZ]

Are externally mounted antenna required for all GPS applications. Thinking about purchasing one I can mount temporarily in the airplane and wondering if an external antenna is absolutely necessary. A 296 or something similar is what I'm thinking anybody have any advice?

[txmaule]

i have the antenna for my 496 suction-cupped at the top of my windshield and it works great. The antenna for my wx weather is velcroed on top of the dash and also works well.

skip

[Skystrider]

I lasted two years with my 196 and an antenna on the dash or suctioned to a window. It worked fairly well and I lost signal only occasionally.

Then I mounted an external antenna. What a difference! Almost all the signal bars now lock up almost instantly and I have yet to lose the signal.

[a64pilot]

Put the antenna up in the sky light and it is almost as good as an external. I fly regularly with the stick antenna mounted on the Garmin and have flown as far south as Ecuador and as far North as Tuktoyoktuk without any problem.

[210TC]

ME TOO
with no suction cup 196, Magellan and others.

[Green Hornet]

The suction cups approach works on the 296 & the 396 with no loss of signal. Occasionally due to heat it will fall down. So in the summer time I take it off and put it back on to avoid the problem in the air prior to TO. The Garmin 96 series are very intuitive and easy to use.

[andy]

I put my Garmin 396 on the glare shield using a simple metal angle bracket, RAM GPS cradle and diamond ball mount. I drilled two holes in the angle bracket for the diamond ball mount and filed the edges to prevent them from cutting the cables where the excess is wrapped around the bracket. The ball connects to a 1-3/4" RAM arm and a round ball mount which is mounted on a plate on top of the glare shield with a high strength adhesive disk. The plate was installed to cover the hole made when I had an ADF removed years ago, but you could use a u-bolt or pipe clamp mount on the tube with a longer RAM arm, rather than the adhesive disk. The XM antenna's magnet keeps it firmly attached to the angle bracket. The bracket is 1/8" thick and about $3.50 at your local hardware store. The magnet appears to be far enough away from the magnetic compass to prevent an error. I checked the compass reading with and without the GPS and didn't see any difference. Maybe the steel bracket confines the flux lines to a smaller area. No problems receiving the GPS or XM satellite signals since the antennas are far enough forward not to be obstructed and there's nothing metal blocking the signals. I put RAM ball mounts in my car and boat and I move the GPS and XM antenna back and forth as needed without having to worry about cable routing. Here are some pictures: