Anyone? Anyone? Buehler, Fry? Do any of you have have an external antennas on your GPS's? I just got a Garmin StreetPilot ColorMap and was wondering if it really helps to have an external antenna?

Oh yeah! And where you mounted them would be helpfull too!

Happy Turkey Day!

-Rick

http://shop.garmin.com/accessory.jsp?sku=010%2D10052%2D04

I've got an Emap and a Mighty Mouse antenna. It has a 16' cable and a built-in magnet in the base to stick on the roof.

http://home.us.net/~stimpy/xterra/misc/GPS.jpg

It's about $60 as I recall, cheaper than the Garmin antenna. It's also smaller, has better gain, and uses less juice (supplied by the GPS).

I got it at TheGpsStore.com (http://www.thegpsstore.com) (under HandHeld Accessories).

I find it has much better reception, especially on the trail with lots of tree cover. In open terrain, I have no problem getting at least 10 of 12 bars, and it's all but impossible to throw it off otherwise. Definitely a handy thing to have in my book.

Brent

Hope you got the new one. It has voice and turn by turn directions. I rarely have dropouts with the stock antenna on my dash unless I'm covered by trees.

I'm running the Garmin Map76. I have an external antenna, but since I mounted my GPS on top of the dash, it doesn't help much. I think they only help if you want to mount your unit somewhere in the car that doesn't have a direct line-of-sight into the sky. If you're going to mount your GPS down by the shifter, or on the vertical part of the dash then get a antenna.

The Garmin antenna comes with a magnet base, so I place it just in front of the faring, and run the cord through the sunroof, down the pillar between the door and windshield and then across the dash.

I have an external antenna (magnetic mount and extra antenna cable) for my Garmin II+. I have never had a 'dropout' that I know of. I use my GPS to create a waypoint every two minutes on my laptop and have not noticed any missing waypoints.

I have been with others users that reported 'dropout', especially under trees.

As I only use it on off-road excursions, I just mount someplace on the roof and run the cable in thru a door gasket. You take a look at Chris's mount when you go over for the wine tasting.

Toy Man