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Thread: Double GPS Failure

  1. #1

    Double GPS Failure

    Here's one for ya'....

    We went out for a short flight, to try out some new camera filters and angles, then noticed that neither of the Garmin GPS's were finding any satellites. We tried several things to try and get them working and finally got them up, but still don't why they weirded out in the first place.

    Any ideas?


  2. #2
    FlyingRon's Avatar
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    Intermod from the com radios?
    Interference from other elecdtronics (like your cameras/computer)
    Where's the antenna? Did you place something that blocks it?
    Was the government screwing around with GPS in that area?

  3. #3
    MEdwards's Avatar
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    Where were you when this happened? I received a Flight Advisory from the FAA for GPS interference testing on the White Sands Missile Range for essentially the entire month of July. Had a similar one last month too. Many hours a day. The affected area is huge, Phoenix to Dallas, Denver to well into Mexico. Says GPS signal will be unreliable or unavailable.

    I know this testing is important for the military, but what are they going to do when GPS becomes the primary navigation means for everybody, even "important" folks like the airlines?

  4. #4
    We were thirty miles east of McKinney, Texas. The antennas and power were separate on each unit, which was the whole idea, in case we lost power on the GNS430, we had the GARMIN 696.

    We had three GoPros going. Two for sure had the WIFI turned off. I'm not sure about the 3rd. We'll always turn "on" on the WIFI on each camera, one at a time, to check where they are pointing using our iPhone. So that camera's WIFI could have caused the problem. That's our latest theory. But if that was the case, why did the units boot up at the end of the video. The big mystery was when we turned off the GNS430, the Garmin 696 found it's satellites almost immediately, which would indicate that the GNS430 was preventing the Garmin 696 from finding it's satellites. It's an ongoing mystery.

  5. #5
    N222AB's Avatar
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    An avionics tech friend of mine once told me that the local oscillator in some ILS receivers will cause interference to GPS receivers. It's something like the 10th harmonic when tuned to one particular ILS frequency. 109.something, but don't remember the exact frequency. That would explain the 696 coming alive when you turned off the 430. I would expect that to have been fixed in newer systems, but you never know. If it happens again, try an experiment by changing comm and nav receiver frequencies to see if the GPS comes back.

    Just grasping at straws for an explanation.
    Bill

    N222AB
    Fort Collins, CO

  6. #6

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