Dom writes:
… on my
recent transcontinental odyssey, pretty much over the GAFA, (if you don’t
know what the GAFA is, I’ll explain it off LML), both my Garmin 295 and
AvMap EK IV lost satellite signals intermittently every few seconds, while the
KLN89B happily continued to receive all available satellites. This went on for
some time.
Dom,
I have a Garmin 295 that’s about as reliable and
trustworthy as any piece of electronic equipment I own. Having said that, one
of the radios in my Cherokee will definitely disrupt the signal on certain
frequencies. It is so predictable on 119.3 (a primary approach control freq for
our flying area) that I initially concluded that the GPS signal was being
jammed in a specific geographic area—took me months to make the
association to a change of ATC frequencies. The interesting thing is that radio
#1 will jam the GPS if tuned to 119.3 every time, but radio #2 does not affect
it. My suspicion is that there are some IF frequencies in the Narco radio that “walk
on” the GPS signal—or perhaps internal circuitry in the GPS itself?
Having “discovered” this, I have now taken to switching
radios/frequencies any time I lose the GPS signal, and have thereby compiled a short
list of frequencies, when tuned into the Narco, that interfere. I have discovered
only one frequency on the King radio that interferes, and it’s a different
freq…go figure. In any case, you might give this some consideration.
Bob Pastusek