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Thread: external antenna or not?

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Mar 2011
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    Default external antenna or not?

    I have a garmin stryker 7 unit on out new boat. It can't be loaded with maps, doesn't come with any, g.p.s. is able to do waypoints and a trail but that's it. It came with boat, I'm not ready to pull the trigger on another Garmin or airmar or lowrance just yet. We have a 20 ft. hardtop ducksworth and the new unit is inside. Seems to work O.K. without an ext. antenna. That being said, I am installing our older lowrance that does have navionics maps loaded alongside of it. I realize I can't use the bottom finder on the Lowrance as the two sonars would not work next to each other, I just need maps. Do I need a "puck" type external antenna or will the Lowrance work inside of the hardtop without it? Does anyone have a Lowrance ext,. antenna for sale? Also any recommendations would be appreciated on a vhf radio as we will be offshore as well. Thanks, Bob and Melanie

  2. #2
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    Mar 2011
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    I hope someone has some info on whether I'll need an ext. antenna on my Lowrance 527 unit. I am mounting it inside a duckworth hardtop. My garmin unit is mounted under window in front of steering, Lowrance will go next to it. Garmin seems to work without one, any insight would be appreciated. The Lowrance worked fine inside an open boat without ext. antenna except when in remote lakes in valleys with ridges and peaks surrounding it gets spotty sometimes. Lowrance has maps, garmin does not. thanks, bob r

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jan 2009
    Location
    Harrisville, Utah
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    2,709

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    Bob, my suggestion is do a temp mount where you want it mounted to see if it gets the signal. You also can call Lowrance tech services and request information
    2000 F250 7.3L Diesel
    2007 Columbia 2018 Fisherman XL Yamaha F150 Yamaha 9.9 kicker 4 Walker Electric Downriggers Raymarine Element HV 9 Uniden Solara VHF

  4. #4
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    Jan 2009
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    Utah
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    3,859

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    Bob, did your Lowrance previously need an exterior antenna? Some units are made with an internal antenna and some with no antenna. The ones with no internal antenna use the puck. I have had both type of units in the past. My old unit that had an internal antenna worked when on my dash by the windshield. Using the temporary mount idea, you can turn the unit on in your driveway with the transducer unplugged. You should get GPS reception without hurting your sonar.
    2006 Dodge Ram 3500 Dually, 21' North River Seahawk

  5. #5
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    Jan 2012
    Location
    Bend, OR
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    138

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    I have the HDS 7 and it has the internal antenna mounted under a hard top. I ran it that way for a few years and all was fine. When I had the TR1 installed I was getting some interference and GPS didnt want to work as accurately as before. I installed the external antenna and it worked much better. I feel it gives me a more accurate reading of position, and more importantly speed. For $100 I think it is well worth the upgrade.

  6. #6
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    Mar 2011
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    Quote Originally Posted by chukardave1 View Post
    I have the HDS 7 and it has the internal antenna mounted under a hard top. I ran it that way for a few years and all was fine. When I had the TR1 installed I was getting some interference and GPS didnt want to work as accurately as before. I installed the external antenna and it worked much better. I feel it gives me a more accurate reading of position, and more importantly speed. For $100 I think it is well worth the upgrade.
    Thanks, Dave. I'll use it with internal, but I'll get the ext. ant. soon. I get your point about position and speed, I'm sure it will help in marginal locations. Bob R

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Mar 2017
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    1

    Default external antenna or not?

    I have the Lowrance unit with a interior GPS receiver and it worked "most of the time" under the covered top. But "most of the time" wasn't good enough for me. The next year I added an exterior receiver. Problem solved.

  8. #8
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    Mar 2011
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    Quote Originally Posted by HONKER1 View Post
    I have the Lowrance unit with a interior GPS receiver and it worked "most of the time" under the covered top. But "most of the time" wasn't good enough for me. The next year I added an exterior receiver. Problem solved.
    We bought a lowrance hds7-gen3 last month, I'm installing both (!) transducers next week. I'll get to the external antenna next. Your info was exactly what I needed to know, thanks a lot. I'll post on how the side and downscan work sometime soon. I'll have a Garmin stryker 7 for sale after the installation, it didn't have mapping, that did it for me, esp. need those maps for the salt. It does have downscan, though, only used 3 times. New boat, came with the Garmin, was already installed (as were the scotty downriggers, they won't be sold!).Bob R

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Mar 2016
    Location
    Pinedale Wyoming
    Posts
    38

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    One thing that you may consider once you add the external antenna is where you mount it. The best place to mount it is actually in the rear of the boat as close to over the top of the transducer as you can get. If you mount it up by the helm somewhere you just made every waypoint at least 10ft off from where the sonar reading that you wanted to mark was being taken. Just something to think about that a lot of people fail to do. For some this isn't a big deal but if you really want true points this is the only way to do it. It makes a huge difference if you are wanting to jig on a specific piece of structure and using your ipilot to spot lock on your waypoint.

  10. #10
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    Mar 2011
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    Quote Originally Posted by Wyo307 View Post
    One thing that you may consider once you add the external antenna is where you mount it. The best place to mount it is actually in the rear of the boat as close to over the top of the transducer as you can get. If you mount it up by the helm somewhere you just made every waypoint at least 10ft off from where the sonar reading that you wanted to mark was being taken. Just something to think about that a lot of people fail to do. For some this isn't a big deal but if you really want true points this is the only way to do it. It makes a huge difference if you are wanting to jig on a specific piece of structure and using your ipilot to spot lock on your waypoint.
    I get where you are coming from, the best I could do would be to mount it on the back of my hardtop, by the rocket launchers. Puts me about 10 ft from the transducers, but flush mounting it on the rail in the back just doesn't work for me. I don't think that the waypoints being off by 10 ft. will affect us much, don't do much precision jigging anyhow. Thanks for input, lots of help on this forum, my favorite site as far as friendly folks go. Any thoughts on potential get-together on Yale in August from anyone? Bob R

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Mar 2011
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    Well, I installed a new bottom finder/chartplotter about 6 months ago for the new boat, got a Lowrance HDS 7 gen 3. I didn't get the external antenna figuring I would wait and see how it worked under the hardtop without it. Glad I waited, I haven't lost a signal yet, works better then the older Lowrance I had (527). which would lose signal very occasionally, in an open boat. Great unit, I would recomend it to everyone. The nice thing is that I can use the older unit as backup, plugs for power and transducer match. I would suggest getting the transducer that gives you side-scan and down-scan as well. It adds a bit (about $100) to total but it's worth it. Next would be a vhf radio, there's one on classified ads here that I've made an offer on, but someone here doesn't check their posted ads or P.M.s regularly, (no names!) Bob R

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