Problems with Time to First Fix in bad weather/cloudy skies

[Lurker]

I have an Acer N35 PDA with integrated GPS receiver, running TomTom5 or Navigator 3 (I have both but they’re not used simultaneously).

The GPS works absolutely fine on sunny days or when the skies are clear(ish). The “Time To First Fix” is less than 1 minute and it picks up satellites without a problem.

However, it seems to have a significant problem when there are cloudy skies – the TTFF can take 10 minutes and sometimes even longer. Driving around doesn’t make a difference.

During bad weather or cloudy skies, with TomTom5 – the GPS configuration screen eventually lights up with blue bars and long/lat co-ordinates after about 10 mins or so (sometimes longer). Initially I thought it might be the GPS Driver (v1.20). However, I tried it with Destinator 3 and experience similar problems – ‘No valid GPS signal – check antenna’ etc. I know that people say GPS isn’t affected but the weather but I only experience problems on cloudy days / poor weather conditions.

I have tried properly exiting the application and searched the forums for solutions to this issue but to no avail. I have also tried different baud rates etc.

Does anyone know of a solution to this problem? Would an extension antenna such as this one help, or would it be a waste of money?

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[Lurker]

Example extension antenna:-

http://www.totalpda.co.uk/Emtac-Antenna-3m-MCX-Connector.aspx

Would this help?

[Lurker]

Example extension antenna:-

http://www.totalpda.co.uk/Emtac-Antenna-3m-MCX-Connector.aspx

Would this help?

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