One GPS Antenna for 2 Screens?

[Techno 40]

Hi

Is it possible to use one GPS antenna for two GPS systems at once, does one need to connect up both power outs from both systems or just power out from one and gps in and out on both?

Regards

[jwalker]

Do you mean GPS antenna or GPS engine? You mention power so it sounds like an engine. (Crap word for it.)

JW.

[Jelly]

Hi Guys
Yes you can use one GPS antenna to feed info into more than one reciever.
The issues are they are not seperate systems hence validating one against another and redundancy.

I 'm not sure from your post if you have got plain antennas or reciever/antenna combinations.
Assuming that they are plain antennas using RF cable to hook up to the reciever, you can use a splitter to do this.
Another limitation is that GPS antennas are usually powered so it needs a dc block in it to avoid overloading the antenna.
Be warned about cheap splitters, as you are halving the signal between recievers you need the smallest losses or use an amplifier splitter. I might have a spare splitter but in middle of house move so finding it could be a problem.

If you are using a combination reciever/antenna then the signal will be RS 232 or a propriatry string. If you losses are not too great (cheep cable, corroded connections etc) then you can probbably get away with parallelling them up or inverst in an rs232 distribution box - not too expensive.
Rgds
Jelly

[Mike Garside]

But is it a good idea? If anything goes wrong with your antenna (like some clot kicks it and breaks it) both systems are down. Why not build ina bit of redundancy and have two systems running parallel? It can't be cost, surely?