Frequent GPS dropouts

K1UO Larry

loaded v 15.13.... GPS option installed and shows active. 13 or14 satellites visible 6 or 7 tracked (varies between the two numbers). However the 6700 keeps dropping out of LOCK. Another thing I notice is the altitude changes roughly from 90m to 140m and have even seen the speed up to 3 Kts ..when that happens I hang on to my shack chair! Can someone tell me what they 'normally' see on a good solid GPS locked receiver. What should I expect to see?

Steve-N5AC

You don't have a good view of the sky. Your GPS antenna preferably needs an unobstructed view of the sky in all directions. Having said this, I suspect it is not having a major frequency impact. You should be getting around 1E-10 or better after a few hours. If you multiply this times 14,000,000, you can find your frequency error on 20m which would be 0.0014Hz. Steve

K1UO Larry

thanks Steve... I guess the drops outs are normal until I can get more satellites to track (i.e. outside gps antenna.) and also the varying altitude, speed etc? The 6700 front panel lights dropping from solid blue to flashing blue is a bit distracting. I need to find a good external antenna with about a 25ft coax.