Garmin Aera - satellite reception

[Don Ostergard]

I bought an Aera 560 last summer and have mounted it on my panel at the bottom of my radio stack. I did not install a remote GPS antenna (GA 27C or equivalent) because the unit worked perfectly without it. Until November 21, that is. Now, almost without fail, the unit will not pick up enough satellites to work properly. When I remove the Aera unit from its panel location and place it on the glareshield everything works perfectly. No, I don't wish to relocate the unit because the glareshield is already cluttered up with the XM WX antenna, the Zaon PCAS unit, the SPOT device and my sunglasses. Yes, I am willing to buy a GA 27C antenna if need be. But first, I wish to discover the cause of the problem, ie. is the unit itself at fault or is it a geographic problem? I live at 51 degrees North latitude (about 200 NM north of Great Falls, MT). I know that the satellites are low on the horizon at this time of year. However, all of Alaska, much of Continental Europe and all of Scandinavia and the UK lies farther north that I do. And the problem came about rather suddenly. Before I send the unit back to Garmin, would someone from northern latitudes like to venture any observations / opinions? Thanks, Don Ostergard c-flhv@magtech.ca

[Zach Grant L1011jock]

Don,
Just a WAG here, but I remember reading something about the loss of a couple of satellites in the GPS constellation last fall. Maybe one of them was giving you the necessary angle for your installation.

Happy New Year,
Zach

[9089P]

Hi Don,

That reception would suddenly change suggests either a change in the transmitter or the receiver. I know that in my last few briefings the briefer talked about a gps sattilite being out of service. This would go along with Zach's comment. My other though is this, has anything else been done to the aircraft that might somehow interfere with the reception?

I have thought about doing the same thing as you with an aera. Did you use an airgizmo mount? Did you tilt the unit upward?

Thanks, Don

[Ray B]

My iFly 700 is mounted on the yoke with no ext. antenna and the same thing happens intermittently. It hooks up immediately when raised to the glare shield level and stays on when placed back on the yoke. My panel mounted GPS with ext. antenna also picks up slower on the initial hookup on those days. When I've remembered to check there are usually one or more sats reported down that day and other pilots say they are having the same problem. And I'm way down south in McAlester OK. Guess thats why it's good to have those old VORs still in the dash and working. Ray B

[Jay]

Hi Don:

Easiest way to troubleshoot would be to turn the unit on and move it to the top of the glareshield for a couple of minutes to see if it picks up satellites there. If it does, then an external antenna might be the answer. If it doesn't, then there is some other issue. No reason you couldn't do this on the ground.

Jay