[OZAPRS] D700 Internal GPS

[Howard Small]

Hi Damien

Actually I am using my FTM-350 as a model. At first I mounted its 
control unit with GPS on the dash of my Kia Carnival but then it got 
super hot when the car was parked. After that I mounted the control unit 
where the car radio would be (below the air conditioning outlets so 
quite low down) but have it sitting about 2cm forward. The inbuilt GPS 
works 100% there. When I looked at the specs for some of the small OEM 
GPS units around now they are super sensitive and leave the old ones for 
dead. This is probably why the one in the Yaesu works so well in what I 
thought would be a lousy location.

In a nutshell, based on the Yaesu experience, I figure my D700 control 
unit, which sits on the dash of my Defender and is unreadable when it 
gets hot, will work a treat with an inbuilt GPS in that location.

The other solution I have been considering (it has been raining pretty 
well all day up here in FNQ) is to put a bluetooth OEM unit in the D700 
transceiver and let it talk to a bluetooth GPS. I have such a GPS I 
bought for my noteook and OziExplorer which cost very little on eBay and 
works quite well. Digging around on the internet today I can find a 
number of units for around the USD25-30 mark but I am not too sure about 
interfacing them.

With a receiving (master) unit in the D700 and an el cheapo bluetooth 
GPS sitting somewhere convenient it could work out pretty well...

Howard
VK4BS

On 6/03/2011 6:42 PM, Damien Gardner Jnr wrote:
> Yeah, have to say I found that really retarded when I finally got around to unboxing my D710, and mounting it up in the car... I had to get GPS feed all the way to the dash for the head unit...  but then the microphone plugged into the base unit, and there was no extension cable for the mic...  (as compared to my FT857, where the separation kit had cables for both head unit AND mic..)
>
> Re having a GPS *in* the head unit - you'd have to check that you can reliably get satellite reception from your dash.. - when I first installed up the pajero, I had the external antenna sitting on the dash, and everything was fine..  Then I pulled out from under the carport, and totally lost reception (go figure!) - had to move it around so it was sitting next to the snorkel above the windscreen (cable just runs through the door jam, after 12 months it's still fine, so obviously not too tight a seal on the doors...)
>
> Cheers,
>
> --DG