[time-nuts] Best Chance GPS module

[Rick Commo]

Before joining time-nuts I had purchased a QLG1 GPS receiver kit from www.qrp-labs.com.  It was $23 plus a few bucks for shipping.  I installed the patch antenna as it suited my purposes, but there is the means to omit the patch antenna and use an SMA to go to the antenna of your choice.  QRP-Labs claims that the ground plane on the side the patch antenna is mounted provides another 4+ DB of gain.  The actual GPS chip is the YIC51612.

I am running it sub-grade in a “split entry” where the first floor is mostly below ground on a slopes property.  It connects to an Arduino programmed to sent the time from the $GPRMC sentence to an LCD.  I will ultimately use the 1PPS output from the receiver as well.  I use the presence of the 1PPS signal as an indication that the receiver is happy with life at that moment.  It has been chugging away for a few months now.

Cheers,
-rick, K7LOG