FA70 / SCX20

[btorcivia3]

Good afternoon.

I’m considering adding an FA70 to my boat, but running wires from my canopy top to the desired mounting location is kind of a nightmare. I’ve already got an scx20 sat compass mounted and working great. Is there any way to use the sat compass as the position input for the fa70 such that I don’t need to mount the included gps receiver ?

If not, does furuno make a gps antenna compatible with the fa70 that can be mounted below decks?

Thanks!

Ben

 

[Johnny Electron]

Hi Ben,
Sorry the FA70 requires its own direct GPS antenna due to how the Coast Guard wrote the rules. The FA70 will not transmit unless receiving GPS via its own antenna. No, there is no coax GPS antenna that rated to work below decks. It needs clear view of the sky. You can mount it right next to the SCX20 being they are both receive antennas, if that helps any.

 

[btorcivia3]

Thank you!

If I was smart I’d have run a nmea2k backbone cable instead of just a drop cable when I installed the sat compass, but… “I’ll never want AIS on this boat” is what I remember saying at the time….