John has done a good job here, Mike... Just to flesh out some details, I
have both the 195 and the 196 on the yokes in the plane... Each will acquire
3D nav on their built in antennas alone... The stick on antennas on the wind
screen do improve the EPE over the built in antennas - sometimes
considerably - and they do shorten the start up time...
My routine is to get the engines started, and then hit the power keys on
both GPS units as my first action on the pretaxi list... Then I go about
turning on radios, getting the heater fired up (not this time of year,
obviously), setting gyros, etc... By the time I am done with my pretaxi
list and I release the brakes the 196 is always up and locked into 3D, the
195 will usually be there before I make the first turn on the taxi way...
If I have flown earlier that day, or even the day before, both units will be
ready to navigate before I get through my pretaxi list... If it has been a
couple of weeks (only in the winter do I go that long) it may take three to
four minutes for the units to lock up in 3D... When I do a master reset,
such as after up loading a fresh database, and take the unit outside on the
roof of my car it can take up to ten minutes to position itself and go 3D...
I used to carefully scroll it on the world map and position it as close as I
can - I got over that after awhile, I just do the master reset and throw it
up on the car roof and go on about my business... When I come back it is in
3D nav mode...

You need to go outside with your unit and do a couple of startups on the
built in antenna, while timing it... Also note the number of bars and which
are hollow and which are solid and in which order... Then attach the
external antenna and do another start up recording the same data and see if
it is better... A few iterations should give you an idea if you have a
problem...

Denny

"John Bell" wrote in message
om...

Hi, I just bought the Garmin 196 and I really think its great.. only
problem
I seem to have is satellite aquisition times and if any at all. I have
turned it on in various locations and sometimes receive no aquisition at
all, and sometimes I immediatly get it. I even turned it on in flight
to
no
avail.. It seems the "stick" antenna is not strong or working at all...
Is
this me or do others have the same problem? Even on the Ramp of my home
airport it seems hard or a long time to aquire a satellite fix.. any
help
appreciated ...

Mike,

I am not sure what you consider a long time. It might be a problem with
your box or it might be a matter of expectations. When you turn on the
GPS
go to the satellite page. Keep your hand off the antenna, the GPS signal
is
a 50 W signal in an 11,000 mile orbit! Before the GPS receiver can use
the
satellites, it has to know where they are. There are two sets of data,
almanac and ephemeris. Consider the almanac as a rough listing of where
the
satellites are and the ephemeris as fine data about the individual orbit.
Each satellite broadcasts the almanac and its ephemeris. If I remember
correctly, the almanac is good for about 30 days and the ephemeris is good
for a couple of hours.

You should start to see hollow signal strength boxes pretty quickly. This
means that the satellite is being received, but that it is downloading the
ephemeris data. Once the bar goes black, the GPS has the ephemeris data
and
the satellite can be used for navigation. You will have to have 3
satellites
before you can have 2-D navigation and 4 satellites for 3-D.

If you turn the GPS on and there is no almanac, it will take several
minutes
to download the almanac and ephemeris data. If you turn the GPS on with a
current almanac, but it has been long enough to have different satellites
in
view, it will take a few minutes. If you turn the GPS on and it has been
very recently turned off so that it has current ephemeris data on a
sufficient number of in view satellites, the GPS will get a position very
quickly.

Also important is antenna location. The aircraft structure will block the
signal. The better "view" of the sky the antenna has, the better luck
that
you will have. Also, as one of the later responses mentions, the external
antenna is also a little better than the stick antenna. Consider how much
sky the antenna can see from its location. For example, if you were to
use
the stick antenna on the yoke mount of a high wing airplane, you would be
lucky to get a signal. However, the external antenna on the glareshield
or
high on the windshield should be adequate.

Here is more info on the initial start:
http://www.gpsinformation.org/dale/gpsfix.htm

Also, I have a book on using GPS at www.cockpitgps.com. My book is a free
download. If you find it useful, my minimum but still acceptable payment
is
that you sign my guestbook.

Hope this helps,


John Bell