[time-nuts] Failure mode in GPS receivers

[David Forbes]

At 12:04 PM -0800 12/17/06, Bruce Lane wrote:
>On 17-Dec-06 at 19:54 Poul-Henning Kamp wrote:
>
>>In message <200612171136230661.088C8673 at 192.168.42.129>, "Bruce Lane"
>>writes:
>>>Fellow clock-tickers,
>>>
>>>        In the group's experience, what's the most common failure
>>>  mode for GPS receivers, especially older ones, that could stop them
>>>  from hearing the sats?
>>
>>Antenna damage.
>
>	Are you sure? Especially considering that the other two 
>devices connected to the same antenna are working just fine? ;-)
>
>	Just thought I'd remind folks of that -- My main antenna 
>feeds a four-way splitter, and two of the three devices hooked to it 
>are functioning quite well.

Bruce,

The point is that some receivers require more RF signal from the 
antenna than others to achieve the same satellite tracking 
performance.

You might try improving the S/N ratio of the failing receiver by 
bypassing the splitter and connecting it directly to the antenna, 
netting a 6 dB signal increase, to see if it gets happier.

Failing that, is there any diagnostic information presented by any of 
your receivers that would tell if the signal strength to them had 
changed recently?

-- 

--David Forbes, Tucson, AZ
http://www.cathodecorner.com/