Zozza 319 Posted January 29, 2021 Share Posted January 29, 2021 Anyone ever had an issue with getting a GPS signal on their chartplotter if it is mounted inside the cabin, so will not have the recommended "clear view of the sky"? In the middle of a refit and want to move my chartplotter inside but don't want to bother having to buy and fit an external antenna. (Chartplotter is an little 5 inch Garmin Echomap 50) Cheers Quote Link to post Share on other sites
splat 56 Posted January 29, 2021 Share Posted January 29, 2021 Zozza, what is the boat made of and what would be directly above Unit....i.e. winches etc? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Jason128 6 Posted January 29, 2021 Share Posted January 29, 2021 Move it as a temporary thing and try- depending on how the boat is built you might get away with it. it will not be as accurate- only you can decide how important that is to you, it will depend how you use it. I moved ours receiver inside when the outside one failed, but it is still an seperate gps, tucked up close to the cabin top. Ended up using a 50 dollar gps module, off eBay as I didn’t want to spend 500+ or a raymarine one for a 15 year old plotter. most will show the signal strength somewhere in the settings, so you can get a rough idea of the loss. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
aardvarkash10 1,056 Posted January 29, 2021 Share Posted January 29, 2021 check reception of gps on your phone - as Jason says, the sattelite access and signal strength can be assessed on a variety of apps. This is just one. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.chartcross.gpstest 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
chariot 244 Posted January 29, 2021 Share Posted January 29, 2021 Have my Garmin mounted inside but well towards the centre of the boat just to the side of the companionway. Works perfectly. Just do a dummy run before installing. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Zozza 319 Posted January 29, 2021 Author Share Posted January 29, 2021 2 hours ago, splat said: Zozza, what is the boat made of and what would be directly above Unit....i.e. winches etc? No winches. Maybe a solar panel. I am thinking of installing it inside my new pilot house, which will me made of ply and glassed. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
splat 56 Posted January 30, 2021 Share Posted January 30, 2021 Typically, internal antennae will shoot through/ receive through glass/foam, ply etc with no issues. Metals not so much. An external antennae will be more accurate. A little concerned re solar panel location. As others have said best to simply do a temporary test in each of the various options. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
tuffyluffy 76 Posted February 2, 2021 Share Posted February 2, 2021 Yup i had this issue as my boat and cabin head are alloy. I remedied it with a fix mounted external GPS receiver that's cabled to the plotter. Ebay is your friend Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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