Internal GPS Antenna and Bimini Top

[Shaggy]

I'm getting ready to buy a Lowrance LMS-334C iGPS unit which has a built in internal GPS antenna and was wondering if I'll get a signal with my bimini top up? The top will be up most of the time since my family is usually on board.

Thanks

[erikrs301]

I just bought that unit....but haven't installed it yet [sad] According to the manuals it should work fine with a softtop, they say a hardtop will cause problems. I did have my little Garmin eTrex out on the boat with the top up and there was no problem.

[Bob H.]

Bimini's won't interfere with the GPS. I've taken my handheld backup GPS on cabin cruisers and never had a problem in the helm area with a hardtop - never tried it inside the cabin.

[Sandtiger]

Shaggy originally wrote:
I'm getting ready to buy a Lowrance LMS-334C iGPS unit which has a built in internal GPS antenna and was wondering if I'll get a signal with my bimini top up? The top will be up most of the time since my family is usually on board.

Thanks

My boat also has a bimini top. I have a fixed mount GPS with an external antenna (never did get the hardtop) and I also use a Garmin GPSmap 76 with the Americas BlueChart as a backup. Both of them work just fine and so should yours. [wink]

[wildthing]

Last year I bought a boat with a internal antenna[182 Garmin]. My boat is a 23ft. seaswirl cc. It has a canvas top over the T-top, but it also has a fiberglass radio box over the console. The gps was mounted on top the console,about 2ft. under the radio box. The unit would only pick up a couple satallites[spelling?]. So I mounted my 182 from old boat with a external antena. It picks up twice as many sats.

[C Sollers]

I have a Garmin 178 with a bimini top and there's no problem.

[Shaggy]

Thanks for the feedback!!! Looks like I'll give it a try!!!

[skorcher]

Yeah, Learned that this year when I installed my new system and my gps was working while boat was still under my blue tarp for the winter months. I was surprised. =Bill

[Sandtiger]

skorcher originally wrote:
Yeah, Learned that this year when I installed my new system and my gps was working while boat was still under my blue tarp for the winter months. I was surprised. =Bill

It's just a radio frequency (different than braodcast radio or VHF marine), but nothing mysterious about it. I can get a couple of satellite inside my house on the ground floor with my GPSmap 76.

It's just that the frequency it works at is easily blocked by solid objects.

[crow]

No problem thru a bimini top, might not work on a fiberglass T top.

[sprat]

IN florida now a lot of the new installations on flats boats are putting them (antena) inside the console mounted on the from of sides. they seem to work great, so a fabric bimini shouldn't matter one bit.