Garmin 196: Anyone else dissapointed in the actual ability to capture sats

Thanks for all the help. I have been playing with the new toy a lot, setting up routes and so on for the big trip.

1st - I let it 'cook' to load the almanac. I had had it on for a period of time but quite possibly the unit was blanked often
enough that it never actually got a good download.

2nd - Garmin sent a new antenna. Works much better but the remote is still better, naturally.

This is one awesome gadget. I flew some behind a 430 (VFR) and read a good portion of the 430's manual. There isn't much that the
430 would do that the 196 can't. In fact, I find the 196 is more configurable. I get 10 data fields instead of 4. I still love the
color on the 430, but the 196 makes up for it by being portable. I was part owner of the 430 in the winter and never got as
comfortable, even using the computer simulator, as I already am on the 196. If you can work either one, you are 95% of the way there
on the other.

Bottom line, with the remote antenna, this thing is the bomb. It works decently with the stick, even yoke mounted in a 172, but if
you really want a handheld to use in the woods, buy a handheld to use in the woods unless you want to clamp the wire to your hat. In
fact I have one picked out.

And if you want to make your 430 or 196 more intuitive, check out the recent article in Aviation Safety.

Mike Z

"Mike Z." wrote in message hlink.net...
Like a lot of folks here, I debated between the Garmin 295, 196 and the Anywhere Map from Control Vision. I badly wanted a color
unit but couldn't see buying the 295 because it has to be due for replacement. Witness the nice, non battery eating screens of the
new Street Pilot and the 76C handhelds.

Well, with a little trip coming up, I couldn't wait for the new units to trickle down so I ordered the Anywhere Map. Pretty cool
for
$1350 with a cordless and a couple goodies. But then I immediately set about trying to figure out how to keep the thing charged on
an extended trip without getting the cigar lighter reconnected. Double drat, this is dumb, so I cancelled that order and sent for
a
196 from Aircraft Spruce.

It is still cold here so I was playing with the thing in the house and didn't expect it to work inside. Finally after attempting
to
use the unit in the car, I became suspicious when I did 6 touch and goes and in spite of pretty good initial readings, it only
recorded 2 flights 1/10hr out of the 6. So I started comparing the performance to my 6 year old GPS II+.

As it turns out, the 196 works pretty darn good with the remote antenna. Almost but not quite as good as the 6 year old II+.

As it also turns out, I can get the sats better with binocs than it does with the stick antenna. Example: this morning, I tried
both
units one in each hand this morning, the old handheld had a 3D lock and 6 birds almost full scale in 45 seconds. The 196 had only
2 -1/2 scale open bars after 3 minutes and showed no signs of acquiring more. I had to leave for work and still no lock.

Is this as good as I can expect? The Garmin guy I talked to said the stick should work as well but didn't seem to interested that
it
didn't work out that way.

Incidentally, from the top of a 12 story building yesterday, it had 6 sats but took over 15 minutes before it found WAAS on one on
the stick. With the remote it had a D on all 6 in a couple minutes and almost full scale.

Mike Z

I was going to write a quick summary of some of my top techniques, but I am
off to work and do not have time. I have more info on how to actually use
the 196 (or any GPS) on my website at www.cockpitgps.com. Since my book is
a free download, I don't consider this to be to bad of a spam.

Good luck,

John Bell
www.cockpitgps.com

Mike,

Glad you got your 196 to work. I had made a quick post in response to your
posting as I was walking out the door for a trip, but I do not see it. It
might be a problem with my reader, but who knows.

I've got some more information on using GPS on my website at
www.cockpitgps.com. Many of the examples use the 196.

The book is a free download. Voluntary payments are accepted, but my
minimum payment is that you sign my guestbook or drop me a note if you find
the info interesting. My purpose in writing this is not to spam you with my
site though.

My book has screen shots, but here are some of the main points of using the
GPS:

One of the keys to exploiting the GPS is that it gives you a value for the
direction of your path over the ground, TRACK. If you compare your TRACK to
the direction that you need to go, BEARING, and make heading corrections
based on this you will go directly to the waypoint regardless of the wind.

On the Garmin 196, I suggest you use the map display as the primary
interface. The map provides situational awareness and the data fields
provide precision. If you set a data field to TURN (BEARING - TRACK) this
will tell you how much to adjust your heading to go directly to the
waypoint. I like TURN, XTK, DISTANCE, and NEXT WPT as the primary fields.
On the 196, the XTK direction is the direction the aircraft is relative to
the course. This is the opposite of most needles which tell you which
direction that you need to go.

If you go with the HSI display with the map instead of the data fields: go
to the HSI page, press MENU - SET BUG INDICATOR -BEARING. By the way this
will also work on the 295, probably the 195, but not the GPS III Pilot.

Most handheld GPS receivers have TURN, but some may require that you display
BEARING and TRACK seperately. Adjusting your heading so that TURN equals
zero is the same as BEARING and TRACK matching. Some GPS receivers do not
have a direction to the XTK or OFF COURSE field. In this case, just use
whether this field is increasing or decreasing to let you know if you are
correcting towards the leg or drifting away from it.

A note for those with a panel mount such as a Garmin 430, you can display
TURN and BEARING, but there is a data field, TKE which is the difference
between TRACK and DTK. This allows you to combine which direction you need
to go and TRACK into one data field. This gets you parallel to the leg
rather than directly to the next waypoint. TKE can also be used to take the
guesswork out of finding a heading to fly. The problem with TKE is that it
will show you on course beyond the last waypoint. Thus, it must be used in
conjunction with DISTANCE and XTE to be useful.

Whether you use compare TRACK directly with BEARING or DTK (COURSE on some
GPS receivers), or use TKE or TURN, depends on which data fields your GPS
offers, how many fields can be displayed on a screen, and how you can
customize the screen you choose to use as a primary interface.

If you are flying VFR learn to edit the routes using the map. In my book, I
create a route from KDED to KOCF. This goes directly across a bombing
range. From with this route, select MENU - Edit on Map. Move the cursor
over the route until it becomes a dotted line. Press ENTER and drag the
route to landmarks such as roads, lakes, towns, etc. When you have the
route line where you want, press ENTER again. You can now use the GPS and
landmarks as a backup. I call this "GPS Pilotage."

This technique of editing the route on the map works with most Garmin
mapping receivers whether aviation or not. I do not beleive it will work
with the panel mounted receivers. There is a slight implemenation variation
on some of the Garmin receivers in that when you first press ENTER to add a
point, it will bring you to a screen to create a waypoint. After you create
the point, you must then move the cursor over the point and press ENTER
again to add it to the route. The Lowrance receivers have a slight
variation that allows you to add map points to a route.

Lastly, beware that the first point navigated to in a route is the second
point. If you have a route from a to b to c to d and execute the route, the
GPS will start by navigating to b. This is because it uses a to anchor the
first leg of the route from a to b.

Let me know how the learning curve goes,


John Bell
www.cockpitgps.com