Funny you should mention this. My 396 GPS reception has been flaky
lately too.

I went out again and tried a few things. I noticed on both days that I
would get 8-10 sats pinned at the top while stationary. Once I started
rolling, most would come down a bit and jump up and down some. After
rotation and climbing, all sats were lost and the thing lost its lock. I
landed and tried again. Same result. O.K. So I cannot depend on it
during a climb?

Next, I tried moving the antenna around and switching to the stub. It
seemed a little better placing the antenna on the right side of the
glareshield opposite the XM. Turning in some directions made for better
or worse reception. However, WAAS was lost going some ways and regained
randomly along that path or by turning. This seems flaky.

Then I tried something I never really tried with my other GPS units. I
watched the sat page while transmitting. All sat bars marched down to
the bottom and disappeared in about 5-7 seconds. Release the transmit
button and they immediately came back up to where they were. So, now I
cannot trust this thing while transmitting?

I will bring along my Lowrance Airmap 1000 and monitor the sat page
during the various aspects of flight and compare it to the Garmin.
Perhaps the Lowrance is just as weak and I did not notice (because it
never lost a lock so I had no reason to look). For laughs, I may also
bring along one of my several Apollo 920 units and watch its
performance. The Apollo never lost its lock in 7 years of use.

Mike