Nc Mountains Advice

[+dougtape]

Allright i am posting this here because i want advice from people in this area. I am in the mountains of western north carolina, with lots of trees. just curious as to wether anyone has had any experiences with either a patch antenna or a quad helix antenna being superior in this terrain. It is rather mountinous and there is a high potential for tree cover here, which according to what i have learned aobut both may kind of balance out the advantages to each antenna. so any advice or experience would be appreciated.

thanks

dougtape

[+shawhh]

hi,

i've used a garmin 12xl (patch antenna) in the hills and hollows of GSMNP and have had no problems with reception. i now have a 76s (quad helix antenna) and will find out this spring if it performs well in the park, but right now can only tell you that it works fine in the much lower hills of the Uwharrie mountains in central north carolina. generally patch antennas work better in areas of extreme vertical relief while quad helix antennas work better under tree cover. if you choose a quad helix antenna model and have problems with reception there is the option (if the model you choose supports it) of buying an external antenna which are almost always patch antennas. hope this helps. perhaps if you posted to one of the western north carolina groups you could get a more definitive response. -harry

[+infosponge]

I don't have specific experience with quad vs. patch in those conditions, as I've mainly used a quad-helix (several Magellan models).

 

One thing I have found that's handy in those conditions is an inexpensive compass. Things rarely got so bad that I couln't get a lock, even when deep in a a rocky area with steep vertical sides, or under tree cover, but...I did find the GPS would become confused about my direction of travel. Using the compass to orient the GPS has worked quite well for me.