[time-nuts] Improving performance of a GPS antenna...?

Chris Albertson albertson.chris at gmail.com
Wed Apr 4 17:53:13 UTC 2012


On Wed, Apr 4, 2012 at 10:31 AM, beale <beale at bealecorner.com> wrote:
>>  -------Original Message-------
>>  From: Chris Albertson <albertson.chris at gmail.com>
>>  Better and faster way to get good performance is to buy a 10 foot section of 3/4" pipe and a pipe flange.  Place your GPS antenna on the  flange and then attach the pipe to the tallest thing around.  Then  there will be no reflectors that are above the antenna's horizon and no multi path.
>
> That should work, but if you live in thunderstorm country, making your antenna the tallest thing around can come back to bite you.

people say this all the time but many ham radio operators have antenna
masts that are very tall and actually survive storms.  All TV and
radio stations do too.    And then I owned a sail boat for years along
with thousands of others.   and it does not take much of a mast for
you to be the tallest thing on the water.     The trick to being safe
is to make sure the antenna has a VERY low impedance path to a good
ground.  On my boat I had a 60+ foot aluminum mast that was over a
6,000 pound cast lead keel and the two where electrically connected.
 So one end of the system had a good saltwater ground.   It is hard to
do that well at home but you can come close.

People will argue that if you ground the pole it then will become a
"lightening magnet"   That thinking is 180 degrees backward.  A pole
becomes a lightening magnet if it is allowed to charge above ground
potential.  So for most of us who don't live in Florida and #10 wire
clamped to the mast and run off to a ground rod is good enough.  It is
also required by most building codes.   Even outdoor TV antenna have
the same code requirement.

One more argument:  Let's agree the a tall grounded pole is a
lightening rod.  then if the house is going to be struck would you
prefer to have the rod or not?  Without it, the lighting will find
some other patch like a furnace exhaust vent or whatever

So I guess I'd say that a GPS on a mast is not worse than any other antenna.
>
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-- 

Chris Albertson
Redondo Beach, California



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