TomTom GPS - no Satellite found?
Hi, We just returned from a wonderful trip to Anza Borrego. We towed the jeep and went out every day and saw major wildflowers - better than I have experienced before. Just Awesome.... Problem...
Forum Discussion
GPS signals (and SirrusXM) are easily blocked or masked by almost anything. The GPS needs to have signals from at least 4 sources to compute a fix. Some will go into coast mode when they don't have the minimum number of sources. In coast mode it assumes you're continuing in the direction and at the speed you were going at the last good fix. But most units won't tell you you're in coast mode and when they regain signal may then tell you that you should have turned "back there".
Satellites low on the horizon are automatically masked (or blocked) from use in computing a fix too. Generally glass, plastic and fiberglass don't attenuate the signal too much, but they can. Metal as in the vehicle cab really blocks the signals. So even if you have the GPS or GPS antenna sitting on the dash or on your windshield, if you have a metal cab and the satellites are behind you they're probably masked and not being seen by the GPS.
My old RV had the GPS antenna under the plastic dash. On trips heading mainly SW I'd often loose the GPS signal. I moved the antenna to the top of the dash near the base of the windshield to try and unmask it as much as possible and that helped a lot but still wasn't perfect. A perfect solution would have been to put the GPS antenna on the top of the RV.
Satellites low on the horizon are automatically masked (or blocked) from use in computing a fix too. Generally glass, plastic and fiberglass don't attenuate the signal too much, but they can. Metal as in the vehicle cab really blocks the signals. So even if you have the GPS or GPS antenna sitting on the dash or on your windshield, if you have a metal cab and the satellites are behind you they're probably masked and not being seen by the GPS.
My old RV had the GPS antenna under the plastic dash. On trips heading mainly SW I'd often loose the GPS signal. I moved the antenna to the top of the dash near the base of the windshield to try and unmask it as much as possible and that helped a lot but still wasn't perfect. A perfect solution would have been to put the GPS antenna on the top of the RV.
