Message posted by lone wolf on April 13, 2004 at 23:58:05 PST:
It depends on the antenna design (patch or quad helix). The patch antenna likes the GPS to be flat (horizontal), while the quad helix likes the GPS to be upright with nothing touching the antenna. My emap works fine flat on the passenger seat or dash, as my old Lowrance. They both have patch antennas. I'm pretty sure the Garmin Etrex family uses patch antennas also. If you have a magellan (or some of the garmins that use the quad helix, like the GPSMAP60), you should keep the GPS upright and not have anything near the antenna, which tend to detune it. The real key is how does the GPS work when in your backpack. [Mine generally sits in the mesh area, vertical, with the patch antenna facing the horizon. In theory, that sounds bad, but it works quite well.] If the signal was really marginal, a quad helix held vertical will work best. [Thus, you can't really win.] You can google something like quad helix patch and get quite a few discussions on the topic.
In Reply to: Re: OT: GPS questions posted by jklier on April 13, 2004 at 23:32:57 PST:
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