gps losing satellite connection

[speydog]

garmin gps map 182

has started dropping satellite connection. unplugging, rebooting, can get signal back but a bit frustrating. any one else with this model or similar problem.

 

[Sharphooks]

I just went through the pain and suffering of never knowing if my unit would lock on to and hold satellite signals or not. I didn't run Garmin but the symptoms were the same. Finally brought the unit head into an electronics shop, used one of their GPS antennas, and promptly got a good solid signal.

I would check:

1)) cord---if it was fished through tight spots, sometimes the connectors get stretched and abused and you'll get intermittent satellite signals
2)) antenna--- was it too close to your radar? Did another boat pass by and fry it in a marina? Did water get in to the connecting pins?

My antenna was mounted on the top of my wheelhouse roof, approx. 6 ft away from the radar. There was an outside chance the radar fried it, so I purchased a two foot long Shakespeare mount and the new antenna now sits 6" above the radar---small price to pay to at least keep the potential radar impact on the GPS antenna out of the equation

good luck in the trouble-shoot

 

[firelight]

I had a similar problem on my last gps, standard horizon, and it was the antenna connection, it was intermittent also. Took it in and had the connection on the antenna cord repaired and that fixed the problem.

 

[reelfast]

my GPS mushroom sits on a stalk that is above my radar dome. the antenna needs to have an uninterupted, 360 view, of the sky. anything that is interfering with that can create problems. i see lots of mushrooms mounted on roof tops with all sorts of things somewhere in the way which can block satellite signals from being reliably recieved. on your GPS status screen, the one that shows the number of satellites being recieved, is the metric called HDOP (horizontal dilution of position). if your antenna is ok, that metric should read 1.0. any number greater than that is a good indication you are not recieving correctly and it could be any of the reasons already mentioned.

 

[Cuba Libre]

Never could figure out why a car TomTom will work just fine lying below the console , or in my pickup with an extended roof camper just above it.

Seems to me that these fussy marine units are just designed to fail.

 

[speydog]

have connection after shaking up power and antenna cords. will heed advice offered. thanks

had new radar bar built two yrs. ago and fed all wires through it including lights. have to remove bar to take cords out.