[time-nuts] Active antennas for a Thunderbolt...

Didier Juges shalimr9 at gmail.com
Mon Jul 30 18:46:40 UTC 2012


Chuck, 

I have one of the original red box TB.  It came with the Trimble Bullet antenna that is specified in the TB datasheet. 

The antenna works but gives extremely poor results.  The TB works much better with the Symmetricom antenna that is sometimes available on eBay. 

The Bullet antenna is usable with other GPS receivers,  so I know it is not bad.  Its just a poor match for the TB. 

Didier KO4BB


Chuck Harris <cfharris at erols.com> wrote:

>Ok, I'm getting a little puzzled.  I have a TB that came from one of
>the early groups sold by John Ackermann and TVB as part of the TAPR
>buy.
>It works nicely, but like all TB's, it is deaf as a post, and needs a
>high gain antenna.... When I first got the TB, I tried it with a
>Motorola
>hockey puck antenna, with about 17db gain, and if it is outside in the
>clear, it works nicely... but LH shows the satellites signals are all
>down in the mud.
>
>...So...
>
>I bought the active antenna that the TB data sheet said belonged with
>the TB, a 24045-10 bullet antenna, and *NO* satellites are visible..
>the antenna is dead.
>
>I'm no stranger to getting cheated on things I buy, so I chalked it up
>to bad luck, and put my Motorola hockey puck antenna back on my TB.
>
>...Then....
>
>A couple of days ago another active antenna became available, a
>Micro Pulse 1934NW/C 50db antenna from a DATUM INC GPSDO.  I checked
>its data sheet, and it powers off of +5V @ 38ma, so I bought it,
>hooked it up to my TB, and again *NO* satellites are visible... the
>antenna is dead.
>
>I put a "T" in the line, and the voltage heading up to the antenna is
>around +4.5V... The spec sheet says it will work down to +3V.
>
>Am I doing something wrong here?  Or am I just unlucky?
>
>-Chuck Harris
>
>_______________________________________________
>time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts at febo.com
>To unsubscribe, go to
>https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts
>and follow the instructions there.

-- 
Sent from my Motorola Droid Razr phone with K-9 Mail. Please excuse my brevity.


More information about the Time-nuts_lists.febo.com mailing list