External Antenna - Necessary or not

[yam-man]

Hi all,

I am now the proud owner of a Garmin Colorado 300. I intend on using it whilst bike riding.

It would appear that a ram mount solution is not yet available for this unit. Not to worry, I've considered keeping the unit in my backpack and attaching an external antenna to the outside of the backpack.

A few questions:

First of all, do you think an external antenna will be necessary at all (forest riding)? I'm not too concerned about logging tracks with extreme accuracy... I can handle periodic drop outs.

Is it worth using an external antenna, or will stand to gain very little? Attaching the antenna to the backpack may not allow it to work properly either?

What are your thoughts? I've searched and found that a number of skiers use an external antenna with positive results. I'm not sure if it will make that much difference with my GPS though.

Thanks,

Yam-Man

[The Explorer]

Hello - based on what you've said (i.e. your intended use) I wouldn’t bother with external antenna. There is no doubt that where an external antenna placed in a better position than the GPS itself it will give consistently better results, but if you take the time to place the GPS as high as possible in the back pack then most of the time (if not all of the time) it will work on par with an externally positioned antenna.

The newer GPS units have far better antennas than the older ones and so the value of an external antenna has dropped. Unless you had plans of sticking the external antenna on your hat (don’t laugh people have done it) placing the GPS at the top of your back pack would put it only centimeters away from where the external antenna would be anyway.

Cheers
Greg

[Dooghan]

It's a bit hard to answer those questions. You will get some signal loss. How much you get I can't tell you. Just go out and try it out. If the GPS works well just in the bag, then good. If the track log is all over the place then get one. BTW they are dirt cheap now days. Got mine for $40 with 5m of cable a couple of years ago. It's not like it will break the bank.

[yam-man]

Thanks for the detailed replies.

Hopefully I can give the unit a run this weekend, so we'll see how we go. I'll aim to keep the gps as high as possible in the backpack.

I had looked at antennas and noticed that they are relatively inexpensive. I assume an MCX connector is the correct connector to be using (I checked my gps specs however the required connector is not specified).

Generally speaking, will any external antenna with an MCX connector suffice, or does one have to be specific about purchasing the correct type of antenna for a given gps.

Thanks again,

Yam-Man

[mlenser]

Generally speaking, will any external antenna with an MCX connector suffice, or does one have to be specific about purchasing the correct type of antenna for a given gps.External antenna are not unit specific but one thing to watch out for is some (not most I think) external antenna are required to be placed on a metal base. I have 2 external antenna bought of eBay and the one with the higher gain requires a metal base for good reception.

Regards,
Mike.

[julianh]

For what it's worth, I keep my Summit HC in the elastic mesh side-pocket of my backpack (the type of pocket that's usually intended for a drink bottle). I place it in an upright orientation, facing outward (I figure I might as well give the built-in patch antenna the best view of the sky possible.) I get excellent reception under all sorts of terrain and tree cover. (Heck - it even keeps a good track-log when my back-pack is in the boot of my car ! Don't ask me how - I guess there must be just enough "signal leakage" through the glass and through the back seat to get into the boot.)

Sure, you will get better accuracy holding the unit in the approved manner, but if all you need is a near-continuous track-log, and a few drop-outs wouldn't worry you too much, then my guess is you won't need any external antenna.

I would definitely give it a try before contemplating shelling out any extra for an external antenna.

Hope this helps!

[Wombasn]

where is the best place to purchase a 300 and how much should I expect to pay. GME can't fix my 60Csx
Cheers Doug

[Nicko]

It will cost approx $200 to fix your GPS60Csx. If you are interested send me a pm. The shop has external antennas click on the banner and look under accessories

[yam-man]

Hi all,

First of all thanks to everybody who responded to my post.

I took the Colorado 300 GPS out on the bike for the first time yesterdy. I placed in an upright position, within my backpack and wrapped it a thick cloth (to protect it from all the vibration).

Despite riding in very thick vegetation (thick / tall canopy) in valleys, etc, the GPS didn't miss a beat.

I recorded a perfect track log and managed to navigate my way back out of the forest.

I'm very happy. As many stated, the external antenna would have been unnecessary.

Thanks to everyone who helped! Your detailed responses are gretaly appreciated.

Yam-Man

[Nicko]

Good to hear Yam-Man. Anyone that wants to post about the Colorado 300 please do so in that section so that we can keep tabs on the units abailities etc, making it easy for new users and future users an opportunity to quickly find info.

Click Here to go to the review page (http://www.gpsaustralia.net/forums/showthread.php?t=4339)