Old Magellan poor reception

[stuarttoole]

I have an old "handheld" that I have inherited, its about 10 years old.

It has an external antenna and box in between the ext antenna and the unit. I assume that this is a booster it has a red light on.

The problem is I am getting only 2 or 3 satellites logged on and if I remove the unit from its bracket it remains poor which leads me to conclude that the external signal is not getting through.

I asssume that it is a poor connection/not working box . How do I test this?

I cannot go outside with batteries as the unit does not now work without the external power source. I assume that it would work better but could it be another problem?

How does the external aerial transfer its signal to the unit I have tried moving the attached aerial to both the upright and facing down position next to the black plastic lump at the bottom of the bracket that I assume is the terminal for the external antenna.

Regards

Stuart "Sarasota"


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[dickh]

This sounds like a Magellan NAV 5000(like mine) or 5000DLX - a large handheld with a grey box between it and the aerial. (there was one for sale complete on ebay recently, went for $26!)
You can read or download the manual from <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.magellan.com>http://www.magellan.com</A> - look under support and then discontinued models.
If I remember it only can look for 3/5 sattelites, Check all the connectios and make sure there is no corrosion.
For service and more advise you can ask COMAR Tel No 01983 282400 - they are the Magellan agents for service etc.

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I'd rather be sailing... /forums/images/icons/smile.gif

 

[steve_cronin]

My first experience of GPS.....

Was with a 500GLX. Big ribbed rubber covered box with an external swing antenna. I borrowed it from a friend because the Apelco 1100GXL we had ordered had not arrived shortly before our first summer cruise in a new boat and the Decca went with the old boat.

I switched it on and drove back from his house with it on top of the dash. It picked up nothing! Unfair test I thought - too much metal & glass so I set it up in the middle of the lawn at home and just before the batteries were exhausted it managed a fix on three satellites then died. The Apelco (again only a four channel set) arrived unexpectedly and we were OK. That got replaced by a 12 channel plotter when it wouldn't re-boot after an 00/01 problem. On the curent boat (in Greece0 we just have a cheap Garmin 126 with internal antenna which works 100% even though it (& therefore it's antenna) are sited below decks at the chart table. My son has a Magellan Blazer 12, the current equivalent of which can be bought quite cheaply and runs (seemingly) forever on a couple of MN1500s, so if I were you I'd chuck that old Magellan. For around £75 you can get something new, accurate, economical and very compact.

Steve Cronin

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[tome]

Re: My first experience of GPS.....

Agree Steve

The early GPS engines were very power hungry and some of the Magellan sets could eat their batteries before acquiring a position! Modern sets use a fraction of the power - I'd also bin the Magellan and buy a modern GPS.

Modern GPS sets have now have parallel 12 channel receivers, whereas the early sets were mostly 2 channel sequencing which was vastly inferior.

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[stuarttoole]

Re: My first experience of GPS.....

Thanks for all the advice, I will give the connections a clean & reinitialise the set when I go to the boat in 2 weeks then give it a decent burial if its not better. I do have a backup Garnin 11 so i might save up for a ploter to replace the magellan

Cheers

Stuart

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