I used my 168 (a 162 plus a depth sounder) with an internal antenna, mounted
under my leaky dodger for 1 year of cruising. I lost GPS signal just once
for 10 minutes in a year of daily use: in the depths of the ICW with tall
cypress trees all around and all the sattelites scattered out on the
horizon. It was great. If you mount it mostly belowdecks, you might want the
external antenna. Otherwise internal is fine.

Dave Erickson



"Ron Patterson" wrote in message
om...
I am considering purchasing the Garmin GPSMAP 162 for my boat. I am
undecided about whether to get the internal or external antenna. There
is only a twenty bucks difference between the two so I thought I would
just get the external antenna model. But there might be a time when I
did not wish to use the antenna. So my question is, does the external
antenna model also have an internal antenna? That is, will it work
without the external antenna, or, once I choose the external antenna
model am I always stuck with providing an external antenna?

Ron Patterson