External antenna for Quest 2 ?

CalJake · Occasional Visitor Joined: Apr 12, 2005 Posts: 5

Hello all,

Had my Quest 2 out for its first test today, and have to say I'm mightily unimpressed. It had no signal longer than it had a signal, however I'm guessing that may be something to do with my reflective windscreen on my car (Renault Scenic) ??

Is there some sort of antenna extension for this type of problem ? I've had a look round the online shops and can't find anything that screams out at me.

Thanks Smile

Alan

BeatO · Posted: Sat Aug 05, 2006 4:42 pm Post subject:

Hi Alan

It's most probably because of the metalic coating of the windscreen. Do you have the Scenic with air condition? If yes, then you'll also have the coating.

An external antenna will fix the problem without any troubles. Any decent online shop will have what you need. Look for Garmin part number 010-10052-05, GA 25MCX. Here in Switzerland, about any online shop has it, I bet you'll get that one as well.

I've got myself the automotive friction mount (010-10503-00) and put that one on the left side (you'll have to do it on the other side of the car, I quess Wink

) of the car display stuff above the vent output. From there I could go straith out of the car with the cable, through the box where the rear view mirror is mounted on and alongside the windscreen up to the midle of the roof. From there I had some cable left to go towards the center of the roof. Works great!

BeatO

PS: I can take some pictures and post them here later.

PPS: The only other possibility is to make sure the internal antenna is exactly under the center rear view mirror, where you have the dotted area around the mounting stuff of it. That's the only place the windscreen has no coating on. But I quess the reception won't be that great eigther because of the limited "view" the Quest gets.

locksmith · Lifetime Member Joined: Aug 16, 2005 Posts: 221

I bought a magnetic one off ebay for around £11 IIRC. Works a treat. I got one with a long lead and have routed it under the carpets to the boot of the car and stick it on the roof when needed. Theres just enough lead at the front to connect to the quest and tuck out of sight while not being used.

oddsock · Posted: Sat Aug 05, 2006 7:46 pm Post subject:

Check out Maplins,I got mine for £9.99 and it works a treat.

Dave
_________________
TomTom one v1,tomtom one v 3,TT Start20,Garmin Oregon 300,Nuvi 300
Garmin Quest

CalJake · Occasional Visitor Joined: Apr 12, 2005 Posts: 5

Thanks everyone, my faith in this item may soon be restored :D

CalJake · Occasional Visitor Joined: Apr 12, 2005 Posts: 5

BeatO

Some pictures would be great....thank you :D

BeatO · Posted: Sun Aug 06, 2006 4:20 pm Post subject:

Hi Alan

I did take some pictures and put them online.
Here you can see how I installed my Quest 2 in my Scenic II.

BeatO

locksmith · Lifetime Member Joined: Aug 16, 2005 Posts: 221

I never bother sticking the aerial in the middle of the roof, just a couple of inches away from the hatchback door, works just fine.

CalJake · Occasional Visitor Joined: Apr 12, 2005 Posts: 5

BeatO · Posted: Mon Aug 07, 2006 9:13 pm Post subject:

Hi Alan

Have fun installing it. As you can see, it's quite simple without wires running wild... Laughing

@locksmith: The thing with the hatchback is, that you need to get the cable through the car to get out of it. And that means you've got to fix it somewhere or go all the way to cleanly remove any covers, put the cable under them and refit it all together. Quite a task which I avoided. And as the cable comes at a fixed length, it just happend to reach about the middle of the roof.:-) But theoretically it shouldn't be a big difference anyway.

BeatO

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