TMC Signal levels and reception

[inspiredron]

I have just returned from a 5 week trip to France and Northern Spain. Whoever said that TMC signal levels in Europe are much higher than in the UK had a very different experience to mine.

In the UK when I have TMC reception on my 660 I have a signal level of anything between 20 and 50. In both France and Spain I never experienced a signal level above 50. Mostly it was around 25 to 40 and for the vast majority of the time the light on my GTM21 was amber - ie no reception. The only time that I had TMC reports was around the big towns. When reception was OK the reports seemed good but I still sat in a jam for 90 minutes because I hit the problem before it reached the transmitters.

I would say that TMC in France (Calais to Biarritz) and Northern Spain (Irun out to Santiago de Compostela) is no different to what we get in the UK and the Garmin TMC receivers work just as badly there as they do in the UK. It may be that Germany and Netherlands transmit higher powers or have better coverage - or do they? I would not bother with a subscription to V-traffic for France!

[JoshT]

My experience also

[cantgetlost]

I think what I and others have posted in the past is that you get better information in France, not that there is much better signal!
I find that I get alerts even for very minor road works on the Autoroutes.
Driving in France yesterday I got far more alerts than in the UK all though I had no hold ups as they were minor road side maintenance.
I've assumed over the past year that minor works must be reported to the TMC operators, as I get alerts in the evening for work that has stopped and the repair equipment is off the road with no hold up, but I still get alerts all though there is no interference with traffic flow.

You don't say what TMC unit you are using, I was sent a replacement GTM10 by Garmin and the reception was fine coming back fom LeMans but plugging in the GTM1O I had nothing near Rouen where the GTM 10 had full listing and good reception.
In another post I've said that at home in Surrey and around much of the southern M25 I get no or sporadic reception on GTM12 but with GTM10 no problems with reception.
The GTM you use may be part of the difference!

[gpssparky]

I've solved the TMC issue once and for all.
Took my Nuvi 300T back to Comet and got a refund.
Then bought a Nuvi 350 with no traffic. All features on this unit work fine!
_________________
Everywhere and nowhere

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Tomtom Go 540 Live - That's it.

[cantgetlost]

I use a Nuvi 350 to, the GTM10 is great again!
It had a subscription issue after an update

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