----- Original Message -----
From: "Fergus Kyle" <VE3LVO@rac.ca>
> Cheers,
> I agree with Fred. Funnily enough I just read an email about
a month
> ago where one of us had put his antenna on the starboard footwell
ceiling
> in the engine room.......... I think he said it worked well, but
then there's
> a great big metal thing in there. Might be worth trying.
Ignoring the heat abuse to the amplifier inside that antenna, that
sounds like an example of good design, to allow for some installers
not following instructions :-) , though it would seem the engine is
going to block a horizon sat rather easily. My aviation handheld
isn't supposed to work sitting on the right seat of a metal airplane
either, even while keeled over to orient the antenna wrong, but
usually does. The usual difference is that it can take too long to
acquire the sats initially before software gives up. What's probably
happening is the one nearer-to-horizon but really distant satellite it
needs comes through the windows OK, but on the overhead sats -- I'm
sure you know the favorable math involved here -- just suffer a mild
dip in strength that I can see on the screen with the individual
signal bars and current sat location.
Reg,
Fred F.
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