planewood Posted March 31, 2006 Share Posted March 31, 2006 Well, ya get what ya pay for. The cheap $19.99 antenna purchased from Ebay worked fine for a while. My suggestion? Look elsewhere! 30 day guarantee applies only if returned in working condition. Quote Link to comment
Twilight Error Posted March 31, 2006 Share Posted March 31, 2006 Well, ya get what ya pay for. The cheap $19.99 antenna purchased from Ebay worked fine for a while. My suggestion? Look elsewhere! 30 day guarantee applies only if returned in working condition. Check the coax connection. If the wire feels very flexible at the connector, chances are its gone bad. You can replace the MCX connector fairly easy - its just a crimped connection. My GA27 antenna was getting lousy reception regardless of position or which unit I had it plugged into, I finally tracked the problem down to the connector. The shield braid had broken away from the crimp connection and was barely in contact. Reception improved to 'like new' levels when I replaced the connector. Quote Link to comment
+Klatch Posted March 31, 2006 Share Posted March 31, 2006 Check the coax connection. If the wire feels very flexible at the connector, chances are its gone bad. You can replace the MCX connector fairly easy - its just a crimped connection. My GA27 antenna was getting lousy reception regardless of position or which unit I had it plugged into, I finally tracked the problem down to the connector. The shield braid had broken away from the crimp connection and was barely in contact. Reception improved to 'like new' levels when I replaced the connector. Could I ask where you obtained your MCX connector? With shipping, buying one online from the sources I found is almost as much as a new antenna! Quote Link to comment
Grasscatcher Posted March 31, 2006 Share Posted March 31, 2006 "Could I ask where you obtained your MCX connector? With shipping, buying one online from the sources I found is almost as much as a new antenna!" I'm interested in one (90deg MCX) too! Quote Link to comment
Twilight Error Posted March 31, 2006 Share Posted March 31, 2006 Could I ask where you obtained your MCX connector? With shipping, buying one online from the sources I found is almost as much as a new antenna! Newark In-One P/N 01F978 $9.22 each if you purchase 1-9, $4.25ea for quantities over 500. In your case, yes, the connector will be nearly the same price as the antenna, but you've got an extremely inexpensive antenna... Part of the repair has to be reinforcing the connection, or the shield braid will simply break away again. Stiff heatshrink tube as a strain relief is my first choice, but if you don't have access to a heat gun, its not much good to you. The heatshrink Garmin uses is a very flexible Polyolefin. Cheap and easy to come by, I'm sure thats why they used it. A better option would be PTFE heatshrink - significantly more expensive, but better for this application (IMHO). Quote Link to comment
peter Posted March 31, 2006 Share Posted March 31, 2006 Well, ya get what ya pay for. The cheap $19.99 antenna purchased from Ebay worked fine for a while. My suggestion? Look elsewhere! 30 day guarantee applies only if returned in working condition. Which brand of antenna was this? A warranty that doesn't apply if the product fails seems very odd. The most common 3rd-party inexpensive antennas are the Gilsson ones sold under their own GPSGeek retail outlet or by numerous other dealers for about $20. But Gilsson has a 6 month warranty against material and/or workmanship defects. Quote Link to comment
planewood Posted March 31, 2006 Author Share Posted March 31, 2006 Well, ya get what ya pay for. The cheap $19.99 antenna purchased from Ebay worked fine for a while. My suggestion? Look elsewhere! 30 day guarantee applies only if returned in working condition. Which brand of antenna was this? A warranty that doesn't apply if the product fails seems very odd. The most common 3rd-party inexpensive antennas are the Gilsson ones sold under their own GPSGeek retail outlet or by numerous other dealers for about $20. But Gilsson has a 6 month warranty against material and/or workmanship defects. I only know of one brand being sold on Ebay. It was the coil inside the receiver head. It came loose from the tiny circuit board. It was just a case of it not being affixed well; poorly glued and poorly soldered. I did a dicey bit of micro soldering and socked it all back together with super glue. It's on the GPSr now and I'm getting all bars maxed out with 8' stated accuracy. I can always tell when the antenna is working cause all the bars jump to max position almost instantly. Quote Link to comment
+HaLiJuSaPa Posted April 1, 2006 Share Posted April 1, 2006 Well, ya get what ya pay for. The cheap $19.99 antenna purchased from Ebay worked fine for a while. My suggestion? Look elsewhere! 30 day guarantee applies only if returned in working condition. Which brand of antenna was this? A warranty that doesn't apply if the product fails seems very odd. The most common 3rd-party inexpensive antennas are the Gilsson ones sold under their own GPSGeek retail outlet or by numerous other dealers for about $20. But Gilsson has a 6 month warranty against material and/or workmanship defects. I only know of one brand being sold on Ebay. It was the coil inside the receiver head. It came loose from the tiny circuit board. It was just a case of it not being affixed well; poorly glued and poorly soldered. I did a dicey bit of micro soldering and socked it all back together with super glue. It's on the GPSr now and I'm getting all bars maxed out with 8' stated accuracy. I can always tell when the antenna is working cause all the bars jump to max position almost instantly. I think you bought the Northstar GPS one, I have bought a lot of other neat accessories from them, but their antenna is a dog, mine broke too. There is a genuine Gilsson antenna continually on eBay for only a little more, and you get to choose the color and length. It performs much better and I have had no problems with it. Check out this auction: http://cgi.ebay.com/Whistler-Galileo-GPS-A...1QQcmdZViewItem The antenna will work in most GPSr's that have an MCX connector. Don't let the fact that he charges in British pounds fool you (translates to about $1 more than the Northstar antenna), he ships it from California. I've bought other items from him as well, he's very communicative and not a ripoff. Good luck! Quote Link to comment
peter Posted April 1, 2006 Share Posted April 1, 2006 Gilsson sells their antenna and other items directly under their GPSGeek retail name (at least the phone number and address in Hayward, Ca are identical) from their eBay store at: http://stores.ebay.com/GPSgeek for $19.95 Quote Link to comment
planewood Posted April 2, 2006 Author Share Posted April 2, 2006 Gilsson sells their antenna and other items directly under their GPSGeek retail name (at least the phone number and address in Hayward, Ca are identical) from their eBay store at: http://stores.ebay.com/GPSgeek for $19.95 Ordered a Gilsson antenna yesterday. Will see how it works. Quote Link to comment
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