Haicom 204S losing signals

KPJH · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jun 07, 2004 Posts: 3

I have a Toshiba 400E PDA running Tom Tom 3 with a Haicom 204S GPS head.

All has been working OK up until a few days ago. The weather was very overcast with light rain. It would seem that I could not aquire any signals during those conditions. As soon as the weather cleared the reception improved.

Is this normal or does it sound like a problem with the GPS receiver?

lbendlin · Posted: Mon Jul 19, 2004 4:02 pm Post subject:

There is certainly some degradation of the signal when it rains. Let's assume you have 4-5 sats normally in good weather, and when it rains this drops to 2-3 - not enough for a reliable fix.

Now the question is - what's the number of sats you see under normal conditions? Any tinted glass involved?
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Dave · Posted: Tue Jul 20, 2004 9:18 pm Post subject:

Technically the masters that be will tell you that rain doesn't affect GPS sattelite signals, especially seeing that they manage to make their way to us even in meteors or extreme sun spots, but rain like anything does dampen signals, so as Lutz says, it's quite possible.

You will probably find that there's more of a degredation though when you put your windscreen wipers on, electrical currents / fields spring to mind.

KPJH · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jun 07, 2004 Posts: 3

I normaly receive 5 - 6 sats under normal conditions, in the rain I was getting 0.

I have reconfigured the TT GPS settings and now are using the NEMA settings instead of the HAICOM settings.

It would seem that the number of sats has increased to 7 - 8. Now I want it to rain to test it!!!

I guess the front screen on the car (MkV Golf) maybe tinted, I would be supprised if this degraded the signal.

Thanks for the prompt replies.

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