Comparison between GTM12 and Built in SatNav system

[swing]

Well, I've just got hold of the latest navigation CD for my car's built in SatNav system. This CD now includes TMC support (for the first time) and also uses Trafficmaster. So I loaded up the CD, left it for a few minutes, and discovered....

Absolutely no TMC messages. Checking into the radio station, it could only find Classic FM (no use for TM) and even with manual searching could not detect any other radio stations (the SatNav unit has a dual radio tuner, and the other tuner was tuned into and playing a TM TMC radio station).

This was interesting for a number of reasons:

1. I was expecting that an external aerial connection would magically make TMC work better, and it seemed no better than the GTM12.
2. I guess this shows the problems with the weak signals - even though the radio was able to listen to and play the same station, it could not detect the TMC signal.

Although this was all good, when I got home (about a quarter of a mile away) the built in unit had detected a working TMC signal, and gave me plenty of messages. The GTM12 varies as to whether it can receive TMC whilst at home, so overall, I would say the built in unit, though not much better, is definitely benefiting from the external aerial, but it still shows that just being able to receive the audio isn't enough to receive TMC signals.

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