glisson antenna and external antennas in general.

[chris_ah1]

Hi all - was just wondering if I got the nuvi 760 would you bother with an external antenna?

I spotted the glisson high performance unit on the web which gives 32 to 55db of gain apparently but how much voltage does the nuvi put over the MCX connector? Is it the full 5V? I read somewhere that most units only give 2.5V over the MCX so if that's the case I have to check if the gillson works ok with 2.5V or I should just go with their simpler 28db model.

Anyone know where you can get the 55db antenna in the uk? I've tried ebay but other than one unbranded generic (same specs as glisson so perhaps the same) I found nothing. I only found gpsgeek's 28db ones.

Lastly, does anyone mount their external antenna on the roof of their car and is there and easy way to do it? Is it permanent or should you take it off when you leave the car parked? I was thinking of just placing it on the roof, then closing the door on it and let the rubber weather strip accomodate the wire if possible. Then removing it when I park up.

If there's a better place for this, just give it a move.

[PaulB2005]

[chris_ah1]

I guess so - tbh I see on sites that stock devices get about 17feet of accuracy without antenna to 12feet with or even 9....but as I've always said in the marine world with the fancy differential GPS units, if you can't even navigate the 3metres around your boat, why upgrade to 1metre accuracy? why even have a boat?
same with a car .

I guess it only really matters if you have signal dropout and as you said an athermic windscreen - on my dad's car everything needs antennaes.
On my car, you don't......but my snooper sapphire does suffer a lot of dropouts on its connection from time to time through the windscreen...that needs the antenna to be reliable. But that's an old sirfIII flip antenna - hopefully the new garmin 760 is better (which you suggest)

thanks.

Any tips from people for roof mounting?

Also, from a techie point of view, how much voltage is there on the MCX connector?

[missing_user]

I had a glisson magnetic antenna for my 'dated' Garmin iQue. Since the 60CSX and now the Colorado I only use the iQue as a backup unit.

However, I found the Gilsson of great value in the 'City' when I left the rural areas of Wales to make evening visits to the Albert Hall etc.

It gave a far better signal between the high buildings in London.

I ran the cable not to the roof but to the bonnet, and when it was not needed I hid it behind the bonnet lip that hid the heater intake.
It was totally out of sight and took 3 seconds to place on the bonnet.

With the new units the gilsson would only be needed if the unit was behind the special heated windscreens.

My home office is without direct access to windows and the 60CSX has at this moment a 22 feet accuracy and the Colorado 16 feet accuracy!

Added later:-
I am seeing 9 'D' on the WAAS settings in my office and 13 feet accuracy now [22:22]

I enclose a screenshot of my Colorado taken today while the unit was on the passenger seat [the cradle is not available from Garmin yet]

[chris_ah1]

I'm in london actually - so perhaps an antenna will be useful. Anyway, I simply can't decide what satnav to get or if I even need one. Once i get one then I will concern myself again with this stuff.
I might just get the antenna to use the snooper more reliably though for now.

but yeah, pics will be nice :D
pics are always nice.

edit - wow - 10ft!! wow. seems better than the nuvis!!!

[missing_user]

I just tried it with the gilsson and it was a waste of time.
The accuracy 'dropped'

[chris_ah1]

HAHAHAHAHA. that's quite funny!

Is the colorado that good??

Perhaps accuracy pages on gpses aren't that reliable.

I know gpspassion didn't find the nuvi 7** to be overly accurate in comparison to the nuvi 660, but to get a worse performance with external antenna seems amazing.

well marketing for external antennas worked on me!

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