Gilsson GPS Reciever

[warrenpfo]

I just wanted to say I have a 276c Garmin that sits in a RAM mount off the windscreen with the stock antenna upright to pick up satellites. I was very chuffed on putting it all together and getting it to work BUT on reading around I saw allot of people raving about the Gilssons antenna that you can purchase that supposedly boosts the pickup of satellites and the number of them too.

With some scepticism I bought one from the USA off of the bay and it arrived 10 days later in a bubble wrapped envelope for £16 I think it was.

Today I sat in the car and thought I would do a test so I assembled the mount on the windscreen and installed the gps with the antenna pointing to the sky. Turned it on and although its a heavily overcast day the unit took 1:32sec to pick up enough satellites ready to navigate and 3 min later the best accuracy I could get was 15feet which is not too bad but could be the difference between the right or the wrong trail.

I then turned it off placed the Gilsson antenna on the roof of the car as it has a magnetic base with enough cable 16feet to run it any which way into the car and turned on the unit.

12sec later I was ready to navigate and within 36sec had an accuracy of 2 feet with 8 satellites having been picked up at full bar and another 3 at half.

I was so impressed I did not wait any longer to se if it got better but just thought I would let you all know in case you where not happy with your current units satellite acquisition or speed/accuracy.

 

[ignat]

Would it not have locked on quicker as it was a 'warm' start?

I.e the 276c unit saved the ephemeris data from from the last cold start. Ideally you would want to drive somewhere else then switch it on with the Gilsson antenna to properly test?

 

[Chas]

How do you plug the Gilson into the 276C, I assume the Garmin swivel aerial unplugs? but on mine I can't seem to be able to remove the swivel one, I didn't want to force anything in case it broke.

 

[warrenpfo]

Good point Ignat will re test and post the results.

The antenna on the 276 does come off and it has a std BNC connector on it. you need to make sure you line up the plastic moulded locator tabs on the antenna before trying to remove it. Its at about 7:30 on a clock on mine to remove it.

 

[Chas]

The antenna on the 276 does come off and it has a std BNC connector on it. you need to make sure you line up the plastic moulded locator tabs on the antenna before trying to remove it. Its at about 7:30 on a clock on mine to remove it.

I had to fiddle it about a bit, but it came off at about 20 to the hour.

 

[Crispin]

As Kevin said, a fair test would be to drive to another country and try again or reset the GPS (Normally a setting somewhere for it). Cold starts vs warm vs hot are not a great way to compare antennas. Try driving downtown New York for a real test

 

[ignat]

Havent had a chance to test my 60Csx fully yet. One of these aerials might be on my shopping list

15ft accuracy vs 2ft is quite a difference

 

[chriscolleman]

I bought one of these for my nuvi, great stuff when the standard antenna is struggling.

Dad uses one of those 60 csx for hunting, it has got great reception. We haven't needed reception boosting yet.