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  2. [Amel Yacht Owners] GPS Antenna below deck?

Re: [Amel Yacht Owners] GPS Antenna below deck?

Danny and Yvonne SIMMS
 

Hi.

Interestingly we had a near miss lightning event some years ago. An electrical surge came into the boat, a lot through the radar and the aerials. We had two identical backup Furuno digital GPS mounted at the nav station. The aerial for one was mounted outside on the rail, the other under the deck near the nav station. The one fed by the external was cooked, the internal aerial unit was fine. 

Another thought: On a previous yacht with much lower freeboard than the Amel we had a GPS aerial mounted internally near the nav station. Offshore in big swells it at times lost satellites as there were hidden behind the swells. (the South Pacific between New Zealand and the Pacific islands can haves BIG swells) By putting the aerial a little higher we overcame the problem. Obviously these satellites must have been near the horizon.

Regards

Danny

SM 299 Ocean Pearl  


On 17 March 2018 at 09:23 "Ryan Meador ryan.d.meador@... [amelyachtowners]" <amelyachtowners@...> wrote:

 

 

Fiberglass is mostly transparent to radio waves, so it should have only a tiny impact on signal strength.  But GPS (and any satellite) signals are already very weak, so it might be enough to cause you to "see" fewer satellites than you would with a clear view of the sky.  It shouldn't cause any position error.  Take care that your sensor isn't behind any metal or wood, or even some kinds of paint, which can block signals.

Ryan
SM 233 Iteration
Boston, MA, USA


On Fri, Mar 16, 2018 at 3:04 PM, sailor63109@... [amelyachtowners] <amelyachtowners@...> wrote:
 

 

In tracing down the wiring on the boat I've found another GPS antenna!


It provides position data to the ACR Nauticast B AIS.  It was installed in the ceiling space above the midship cabin (just fwd of the aft cabin), attached with silicone to the overhead, and it had fallen over and must have been rolling around up there in a heavy sea.


We've always had good results from the Nauticast so I'm likely to leave it there, unless there's a good reason not to?   Of course I'll improve the mounting situation.


I'd appreciate your thoughts.

 

 

 


 
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