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Catalina/Capri 25/250 Sailor's Forums

General Sailing Forum

GPS Reception

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cdreamonly
1st Mate

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27 Posts

Initially Posted - 07/25/2006 : 20:35:31

I have a garmin 172 (the black & white version was 1/2 the price of the color unit) chartplotter which I finally mounted. It worked great until I turned on my VHS and then it lost all satellite connections. Has anyone ever experienced this? The gps has an attached antenna, and I mounted it on an arm that swings out into the companionway and is also right next to the VHS. The VHS is the original (circa 1983) and mounted on the starboard roof just inside the companionway hatch on my C25. Any thoughts? Thanks

83 tall rig w/k

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PZell
Admiral

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USA
548 Posts

Response Posted - 07/26/2006 : 14:18:55

I mount my Garmin 172 on the bulkhead in the cockpit. It's held on with velcro. Usually it stays put. It can be moved to either side. I put a little strap with a snap fitting on my handheld VHF and pin it to one of the snap thingies that are around my cabin hatchway for a canvas cover that I have for buttoning up the boat if I want. I have noticed that if the VHF antenna is too near the GPS I get static in the VHF, but I haven't noticed anything happening to the GPS. I just move the VHF handheld to another pin farther away. My regular VHF is inside so the GPS isn't used near it. I also have an old Magellan GPS so I stick one on each side of the hatchway. Now the old Magellan has lost all its waypoints a couple of times on me and had to be rebooted (found out from the factory how to do that). Hmmmm, now woundering if the radio is what caused it to lose its mind.

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djn
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
1561 Posts

Response Posted - 07/26/2006 : 14:47:21

Are both units on the same power line? I can't think of a situation where the transmisioin from your VHF would interfer with the GPS. If you are getting a dip in power when you key your radio, it might have an effect. Let us know what you find. Cheers.

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cdreamonly
1st Mate

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27 Posts

Response Posted - 07/26/2006 : 20:11:31

Dennis, the vhs is direct wired into the battery while the GPS is connected to the same battery thru the main switch panel. I am only using one battery right now for everything as my 2nd one died. I plan on going down to the boat tomorrow so I'll check the battery's charge and try seperating the 2 units to see what happens. I'll keep you posted.....Thanks

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by djn
 Are both units on the same power line? I can't think of a situation where the transmisioin from your VHF would interfer with the GPS. If you are getting a dip in power when you key your radio, it might have an effect. Let us know what you find. Cheers.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

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djn
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
1561 Posts

Response Posted - 07/26/2006 : 22:00:06

For a while I was running on one bat and when it got low, keying the mic would knock out the GPS. But it almost dead when that happened. I now have an onboard charger/conditioner and two battaries. I love it....I just push a button and the motor starts... how lazy is that. Cheers.

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Gloss
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
1916 Posts

Response Posted - 07/29/2006 : 07:34:00

I have the Garmin 172c
Last year I had a problem with losing satellite reception. I even sent it back to Garmin for them to look at it for a 175 dollar charge.
It was merely a dirty contact between the antenna and the unit.
The little antenna which swings up is removable if you put it into a partially open position to line up some tabs. I suggest you clean your contacts with some CRC electrical contact cleaner, and then coat it with some dielectric grease.
I'll only charge you half the 175 dollar minimum charge for this advice

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ClamBeach
Master Marine Consultant

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3072 Posts

Response Posted - 07/29/2006 : 11:56:25

If you turn the radio off the GPS gets happy?

Your old VHF radio might be 'leaking' lots of RF energy.
Temporarily relocate away from the GPS (or vice versa) and see what happens.

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cdreamonly
1st Mate

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27 Posts

Response Posted - 08/23/2006 : 20:30:22

It's been a while since I posted this and finally was able to do a little trouble shooting on my reception problem so I thought I'd give you a report on my findings. I made sure my battery was fully charged and was able to rule out that. I then dismounted and moved the radio away from the GPS and that solved the problem. I could actually see the reception bars on the GPS start to drop as I move the unit closer. I found that my reception would start to drop when the VHS was within about 12"of the GPS. My unit has a stationary built in antenna so that might also have had an affect. Without being able to measure it, I would have to agree with ClamBeach that my my old VHS is leaking alot of RF energy. Thanks for all your input. I don't post alot here but view this forum frequently and find it very interesting and informative.

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by djn
 Are both units on the same power line? I can't think of a situation where the transmisioin from your VHF would interfer with the GPS. If you are getting a dip in power when you key your radio, it might have an effect. Let us know what you find. Cheers.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

Edited by - on

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The Officers, Staff and members of this site only provide information based upon the concept that anyone utilizing this information does so at their own risk and holds harmless all contributors to this site.