2011/9/11 Miguel Gonçalves <[email protected]>: > Hi!! > > My Motorola Oncore UT+ is working fine and I am using a cheap magnetic > antenna. > > I want now to buy a better quality antenna for outdoor use. > > Any suggestions?
Any of the "timing antenna" are good. Maybe they are better because they are a helix type antenna but the most important part is the shape of the plastic radome. It's pointed so snow and bird poop does not accumulate. Also they are all designed to mound to a standard pipe flange so you can use a length of 1" galvanized pipe as a mast and run the cable down inside the pipe. Be sure and ground the pipe and add a lightening arrester to the cable run Look on eBay for "lucent GPS Timing Reference Antenna 26db Gain" Expect to pay about $25, more or less plus ship. and it you are willing to drill some hole inn the pipe flange they mount to a standard hardware store $4 part. Otherwize you can spend $$ on a custom stainless steel mount. Also you really do want a good cable with a "N" type connector and not adapters. The N type is waterproof and uses o-rings. After you get the cable indoors use whatever connectors you like but N is best for outdoors That said. I thin there are better antenna that have higher gain and can drive a longer cable, Here is one example ebay #180721168817 But the Lucent parts are very common and cheap and you can always place the UT+ close to the antenna, maybe right after the antenna lead enters the building. That is what I did, then I run cat-5 wire to carry the PPS and serial line to the computer. Antenna lead cable has so many dB per door of loss. You have to look it up for your cable. For longer runs (like 50 to 100 feet) you can get low-loss cable but the stuff is expensive. It's an exercise in trade offs. Get a higher gain antenna and be able to drive lower cost or longer cable, use a short cable and cheaper antenna. As long as the gain at the GPS receiver is within spec you care OK, the UT+ does not care how you do it. The big advantage of the timing antenna is that you cam place it high on a mast and being pointed "stuff" slides off. You will need to measure or estimate the cable delays Chris Albertson Redondo Beach, California _______________________________________________ questions mailing list [email protected] http://lists.ntp.org/listinfo/questions
