Kenwood nav not showing correct location

marfo · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jun 23, 2007 Posts: 8

I have a Kenwood KNA-G520 and it has been working perfectly for around 6 years but when I last come to use it, it was showing my current location as Mexico, and I am in Birmingham UK Confused

When I brought up the satellite info it was showing only 2 or 3 weak signals from the 12 possible satellites and I usually receive around 10 with much higher strength readings where I am parked outside my home.

I unplugged the antenna and the 3 weak signals shown completely disappeared so the antenna is working to some extent.Could it just be a faulty antenna or is it likely to be more serious ?

sgould · Frequent Visitor Joined: Oct 05, 2004 Posts: 1320

I would try a different antenna. There are some cheap ones around. You only need to sit it on the dashboard as a check for signal strength.

I don't know the technicalities of these aerials, but they usually have something called "phantom power' where the power to the built-in amplifier in the aerial base is fed through the aerial lead. Does that fail if the earthing at the aerial fails? Something like a bit of rust? Maybe not as I think that the dashtop aerials have that and they stick on plastic. So the return is probably down the screening wires.
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M8TJT · Posted: Fri Aug 15, 2014 9:27 am Post subject:

I have a spare patch antenna that I don't use. If it's any use to you, you're welcome to it for the price of postage.
The main problem is the size of the co=axial connector. They commonly fitted two different sizes and obviously, the wrong one won't fit.
The outside diameter of mine is 2.35mm.

Google is your friend. Mine will not fit your Kenwood as it looks like they use a rectangular connector. Sorry.

marfo · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jun 23, 2007 Posts: 8

Thanks for the replies folks.I bought a replacement antenna as they arent very expensive and I had convinced myself that it was the cause of the problem but it didnt make any difference at all.

I can only assume that the unit itself is faulty.I spoke to Kenwood technical support and also their authorised repairers and was told that as it is a discontinued model they cannot repair it

Looks like I will have to buy a used unit or a complete new all in one head unit.

PaulB2005 · Posted: Sat Aug 23, 2014 6:48 pm Post subject:

Is there a factory reset option?

Have you tried disconnecting the power to the unit overnight?

marfo · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jun 23, 2007 Posts: 8

There is no factory reset option for the nav unit itself and I havent tried disconnecting the power overnight.

What I did do is switch on a setting that says "use indoors" and what this does is disable the GPS and the unit then uses the dead reckoning feature.

Then when I turned off the "use indoors" feature it then switches the GPS back on and "acquiring satellites" comes up on the screen.It then started picking up the usual 9 or so satellites and within a few minutes it was working pretty much as normal and the accuracy was down to 6 feet which is the best I have ever seen it.

I did this whilst on an hour long drive and kept an eye on the GPS info screen which shows all the satellites and their signal strength and all was well.

It did switch to dead reckoning 2 or 3 times for some reason even though all the satellites were being received so I will have to see if it continues to work properly.

I will try disconnecting the power overnight to see if it has any effect.

Thanks for the replies folks and fingers crossed it will be OK. Very Happy

PaulB2005 · Posted: Wed Aug 27, 2014 7:25 am Post subject:

The occasional use of dead reckoning can be caused by momentary signal loss (tall buildings, being next to a truck/bus etc) I would not worry about it as your problem was most likely fixed by switching the GPS off and then on again.

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