• 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.

GPS Mysterious Loss of Satellites - Weird but true

Rick Wilson

Rick Wilson

EF0
Joined
Aug 12, 2005
Messages
22
Location
Notrh Texas
My Garmin GPS 76CS worked flawlessly for a number of years. Out of nowhere, it stopped working. Almost zero signal for any bird in my driveway which was a known location for good reception. Position on the vehicle's dash and all wiring remained the same.

OK, what has changed? Ah! A frequency change used by my local (and brother's workplace) Medivac helicopter service had been programmed into my VHF Motorola Spectra (also used for HAM) radio. I was listening on that channel.

Apparently the two-way radio receiver's IF was radiating a harmonic that was desensing the Garmin receiver making it useless. Unusual for a commercial radio. Changing channels or simply moving the radio microphone made a difference in the received signal strength on the GPS. Ferrite toroids on the mic cord and power leads fixed the issue.

Moral of the story is that the GPS signal is extremely weak and the receivers are very sensitive. If you GPS signal inexplicably goes away, begin diagnostics by turning off *all* in-car electronics one-by-one and look for the culprit.
 
Good advice, Rick! It took me a little while to figure out that I would lose my GPS signal on my old Earthmate puck every time I'd key up my 2m/70cm radio on moderate or high power. It'd work find when I'd transmit on low power, but it'd always drop out on mod or high power transmit. Alas, I think this issue went away when I got rid of the Earthmate and picked up a different GPS USB puck.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top