I just bought a Garmin GPSMap 496, which I plan to mount in my panel with an AirGizmo Paneldock. Everything is setup, the Paneldock is in, I have the power cable custom built to make it FAA friendly.

My question is, what have you other guys who've done this used for an external antenna? I assume I need one, since the unit fits into the dock with its antenna folded in.

An external antenna is not cheap.

Zane:

My pals who have a 295/296 GPS do not have an external antenna. They use the remote antenna that came with the unit, mounted on the windshield or glare shield, it seems to work fine.

I put the panel dock in my super cub and spent the $300 on the external antennae. it is a nice clean installation, but the external antennae supplied with the unit worked great just laying on the dash. i did have to do a 337 for the panel dock as it is "permanently attached" to the panel,.

i just bot the xm weather now i have to figure out what to do with that antennae.

bob erickson
charlo mt

zane wrote:I just bought a Garmin GPSMap 496, which I plan to mount in my panel with an AirGizmo Paneldock. Everything is setup, the Paneldock is in, I have the power cable custom built to make it FAA friendly. My question is, what have you other guys who've done this used for an external antenna? I assume I need one, since the unit fits into the dock with its antenna folded in.

I had Bill Gettle at The Flying Machine in Cave Junction do the AirGizmo in the panel of my '56 172TD, along with stereo intercom for the XM radio/weather in the 396 as part of this year's annual. We just made log book entrys.

For now I'm using the GPS and XM antennas that came with the 396. Initially I used a suction cup mount for antennas, but I got tired of looking at it on the windshield, so now I lay the whole mess up on the glareshield. The big magnet in the XM antenna screws up the whiskey compass, but, who gives a shit about that.

Long term, I'll do an external mount on both XM and GPS just to clean up the wires. XM reception will be a bit better too up on top. I flew Alcan last summer, and over to Bethel for a job with Yute Air, and had good XM reception with antenna inside until about Kluane Lake, at which point I lost some of the transponders, but for the whole trip I always had some channels of music available. Even out in Bethel in the C207's I had reception as long as I was aimed southeast. An external mount would have made a huge difference. But, Lower 48, it's been flawless no matter where I've been or what direction I've been flying.

Gump

I'm not looking for opinions or advice on the approval of the installation, simply whether I need an external antenna.

Does the XM antenna function is a GPS antenna as well? I could prob RTFM and the answer would be clear....

And Gump...WTF were you doing in Cave Junction?

zane wrote: Does the XM antenna function is a GPS antenna as well? I could prob RTFM and the answer would be clear....

And Gump...WTF were you doing in Cave Junction?

XM and GPS are completely separate antennas. In fact the big, bulbous XM antenna is both receiver and antenna in the same housing.

The Gettles run The Flying Machine Fixit Shoppe in Cave Junction. Been friends and my mechanic for 20+ years now. Great folks and do great work.

Gump

zane wrote: An external antenna is not cheap.

GPS external antennas ARE cheap. Less than $50. It's the XM antenna/receiver that's $$$$$. Garmin wants $400+ for one, but you can find 'em on eBay for under $200

http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dl ... category0=

My 396 came with two, one rigid black plastic that uses BNC connector on the back (standard Garmin that fits all my older Garmin stuff) and a small magnetic based antenna with about 10 feet of wire. I use the wire/small one in conjunction with the AirGizmo dock.

Gump

GumpAir wrote:My 396 came with two, one rigid black plastic that uses BNC connector on the back

Hot damn! I didn't realize the folding antenna was just connected with a BNC connector. Looks like I can pull it off and run a length of light coax extension to get the antenna on top of the panel. ...At least for now. I'll prob spring for the more permanent mount external antenna at some point. My hangar neighbor mounted his XM antenna on the backside of the Rosen bracket, which is a good place to affix it and it stays out of the way. You just have to manage the wires.

The reason I ask about Cave Junction is that I grew up about 15 miles NE of there, and actually my first solo was in an ultralight at Illinois Valley airport about 11 years ago.

I put both the XM and gps on the glareshield in the C-210 and in the skylight when it's in the Maule just to clean things up. They work great in both locations. I do not think you need an external antenna.
Oh, the gps antennas are the same as the old Garmins, but the power cord is not.

I'm retarded. There were so many goodies in the box that I overlooked the nice external GPS antenna with suction cups.

Thanks to Rob for pointing that out to me.

Zane
I think you have the same style panel that I do. Where is it mounted? On the co-pilots side where the glove box was? Did you have to move gauges or anything?

Va170b wrote:Zane
I think you have the same style panel that I do. Where is it mounted? On the co-pilots side where the glove box was? Did you have to move gauges or anything?

For now it's on the left side where my Loran and ADF used to be, in the lower panel radio stack. AirGizmo makes this handy guy which tilts it up for easy viewing.