Garmin GpsMap 396 - Flight Test

In article .com,
"Dan" wrote:

Press and hold the OUT button while turning the GPS on.

What is the OUT button? (Is that one of the ZOOM buttons?)

john smith wrote:
In article .com,
"Dan" wrote:


Press and hold the OUT button while turning the GPS on.


What is the OUT button? (Is that one of the ZOOM buttons?)

Yes, one is labeled "IN" and the other one is "OUT".

Dan wrote:
I inquired to Garmin Tech support about our problems and got the
following response about clearing the almanac. Probably worth a shot.


Dan,

I spoke with Garmin today and got the same reply today. I followed the
procedure to reset the almanac and it took maybe 20 minutes to
complete. I also discussed a problem I am have having with my
lightspeed thirty 3Gs where I get a squeal through the headset when
attached to the 396 when the 396 is plugged in to the cig. lighter.

The support guy suggested I try a ground loop isolator between the 396
and the headset battery box. He mentioned RadioShack, but theirs does
not natively support the 3.5mm (1/8 inch) jack (RS requires a cable
adaptor). I did find a product at crutchfield.com ( 127SNI135 PAC
SNI-1/3.5 Minijack Ground Loop Isolator) that has female / male 3.5 mm
jacks. They web site has 5 testimonials, 2 from 396 owners, asserting
it solved all problems with using the 396's XM radio in the cockpit. I
ordered one today for about $18.00 + $6 shipping. I'll post a reply
next week with the result, but it looks promising.

-Bernie

GPS units need to have a "quadrifilar" design antenna or they will not
work well.
I had an older Garmin that I connected to an older stock GPS antenna
outside the Cherokee and it still would not work reliably. There is
information on this design antenna on the web. Magellan uses the quad.
http://www.qsl.net/n8imo/qha_4.html

wrote:
Dan wrote:
I inquired to Garmin Tech support about our problems and got the
following response about clearing the almanac. Probably worth a shot.


Dan,

I spoke with Garmin today and got the same reply today. I followed the
procedure to reset the almanac and it took maybe 20 minutes to
complete.

I flew today with the newly rebuilt almanac and had no loss of sat.
lock in 2 hours of flying. The GPS page showed much better reception
then before. The almanac rebuild looks like it has had a positive
effect on GPS performance.

-Bernie

You are either funning us, or you have absolutely no idea what a quadrifilar
antenna is. A two foot high antenna mounted on a 6 foot high mast isn't
going to mount easily on anybody's airplane, let alone a homebuilt.

Your "older Garmin ... connected to an older stock GPS antenna" probably
didn't have an amplifier in the antenna with enough gain to overcome the
loss in the coax you used.

Most GPS external antennas use a modified patch antenna with a 25-30 dB
amplifier mounted to the backside of the patch.

Jim


"darthpup" wrote in message
oups.com...
GPS units need to have a "quadrifilar" design antenna or they will not
work well.
I had an older Garmin that I connected to an older stock GPS antenna
outside the Cherokee and it still would not work reliably. There is
information on this design antenna on the web. Magellan uses the quad.
http://www.qsl.net/n8imo/qha_4.html

In article ,
"RST Engineering" wrote:

You are either funning us, or you have absolutely no idea what a quadrifilar
antenna is. A two foot high antenna mounted on a 6 foot high mast isn't
going to mount easily on anybody's airplane, let alone a homebuilt.

Jim, have you ever seen the GPS antenna for the Goodyear Blimps?
Of course not! Do you think they want everyone to know they have a two
foot high quadrifiler antenna mounted on a six foot mast buried in the
middle of the envelope?