• After witnessing the continued decrease of involvement in the SpotterNetwork staff in serving SN members with troubleshooting issues recently, I have unilaterally decided to terminate the relationship between SpotterNetwork's support and Stormtrack. I have witnessed multiple users unable to receive support weeks after initiating help threads on the forum. I find this lack of response from SpotterNetwork officials disappointing and a failure to hold up their end of the agreement that was made years ago, before I took over management of this site. In my opinion, having Stormtrack users sit and wait for so long to receive help on SpotterNetwork issues on the Stormtrack forums reflects poorly not only on SpotterNetwork, but on Stormtrack and (by association) me as well. Since the issue has not been satisfactorily addressed, I no longer wish for the Stormtrack forum to be associated with SpotterNetwork.

    I apologize to those who continue to have issues with the service and continue to see their issues left unaddressed. Please understand that the connection between ST and SN was put in place long before I had any say over it. But now that I am the "captain of this ship," it is within my right (nay, duty) to make adjustments as I see necessary. Ending this relationship is such an adjustment.

    For those who continue to need help, I recommend navigating a web browswer to SpotterNetwork's About page, and seeking the individuals listed on that page for all further inquiries about SpotterNetwork.

    From this moment forward, the SpotterNetwork sub-forum has been hidden/deleted and there will be no assurance that any SpotterNetwork issues brought up in any of Stormtrack's other sub-forums will be addressed. Do not rely on Stormtrack for help with SpotterNetwork issues.

    Sincerely, Jeff D.

Delorme GPS Outage Issues

Some vehicles have metallized windshields that will attenuate any RF passing through them. Tollway authorities that use RFID tags to identify the vehicles for toll collection purposes are well aware of this and I found this list from Georgia:

http://www.georgiatolls.com/SRTAExternal/pdf/metallizedWindshieldList.pdf

It seems that several different year model Tahoes are on the list.

Here's a post specifically addressing the DeLorme receiver:
http://forum.delorme.com/viewtopic.php?t=3976

I currently use an external amplified mag mount GPS antenna for my Garmin 76S with good results and no problem when transmitting on 2-meters even with my 110 watt Motorola Spectra with about 4 feet of antenna separation. I notice a substantial improvement in signal strength even though I don't have a metallized windshield.

My backup is exactly what mrobinette uses, a Garmin GPS-18. The 76S sometimes performs APRS tracker duties so I sometimes need a second receiver.

I hope that this helps.
 
Was on those storms, but not transmitting so didnt have the problem with my delorme gps.

HOWEVER - I was getting a constant shock through my teathered cell phone that was connected to my trucker antenna...everytime I touched it I got shocked - this lasted for about 10 straight minutes all the way back to Plainview. The shock was enough that I couldnt touch the phone.

This happened at exactly the same time as the LBB radar failure. Any connection?

Obviously I should ground my antenna, but where was this constant charge being generated? And why did it last so long?
 
Bill,

A static charge (pretty hefty one at that) can be built with the air moving over the antenna if the conditions are right. We used to see this quite a bit in the New Mexico mountains a lot with Helicopters dropping a sling. We always made sure to let the sling hook touch the ground be fore grabbing it.

I watched a couple of firefighters get knocked to the ground from the built up static charge as they grabbed the sling hook before it hit the ground. They were hooking up a "rain bucket" to knock out hot spots on a range fire at White Sands.

I've received that kind of shock only a couple of times, but it's enough to convince you in a hurry!
 
We sometimes lost coverage when heading north - we have the receiver on the dash, but I suppose heading north, the roof of the car can get in the way and block the signal. However, it was only very intermittent.
 
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