need your advice on it. i have a 2005 xA. i have the pioneer avic d1 installed. my antenna location is on the upper right corner of the windshield. now i live in New York City.... my signal sucks pretty good.. But once i go outside of the city, it works nicely. but when i take the antenna and attach it outside the window it works even better... so my question is. why? and where's the best place to have it (outside)?

 

The GPS antenna should be in a clear line of sight for the satellite. This could be inside behind the windshield or outside of the car. You said that your antenna is in your upper right hand corner of the windshield... try to mount it on the dash as close to the windshield as possible. That's where mine is and when I was in NYC, I had no problems at all.

If you are going to mount it outside the car, anywhere on the roof is good. Many people mount it in the back of their car, and IMO, that's where it looks the best. But it might be hard to route the cable that far back.

Also, keep in mind that NYC is a very busy place with many obstructions overhead. The bridges and tunnels can create quite a blockage for the GPS signal. Even when you are in a clear line, the NYC sky is blanketed in a pretty heavy radio "cloud"... so much going on in the air. This might also create a blockage for the GPS signal. However, seeing as how I didn't have any problems whatsoever when I was in NYC, you might just have a bad antenna.

Anyone else in NYC have this problem?

 

my wife and I drove out to Montauk yesterday morning. a few times when I was out there on the LIE (495).. i was taken off the map. Once I attached the antenna outside the car (through the window).. the signal came right back and I was back on LIE. I never actually tried driving in the city w/ the antenna attached outside because I don’t use the GPS much... know my way around for the most part. Guess I need to ran more test and see. I will try to put the antenna on the dash/windshield area.
yes, i do know about all the heavy radio clouds in nyc. I also have a Bluetooth GPS receiver i use w/ my PDA.. and I get VERY strong signal.. and that’s normally places inside the car.... on top of the dash board.

i will be making a road trip to North Gerogia memorial weekend... so thats my test how good the GPS will be. good thing i know my way down there. heheh!

john