MountGuys Blog

January 17, 2011

Popular Mounts for Geocaching

Filed under: GPS Mounts and Accessories — Tags: , , , , — mountguys @ 6:02 pm

The internet and a GPS make great partners together.  Unfamiliar with geocaching?  It’s a modern day treasure hunt using a GPS.  Where do you find out about the hidden treasures?  There’s a lot of websites out there that publish them.  The premier sites are geocaching.com and groundspeak.com but several others are out there as well.  The sites deliver coordinates by state.  Don’t forget to sign the hidden log when you find it.

So the question is what GPS should you use and then where do I put it?  Your best bets are the handheld GPS units from Garmin or Magellan (eXplorist series).  Garmin seems to cater most to the GPS recently announcing some add-ons for current GPS owners.

Check out the Garmin Chirp which is a wireless beacon that will work with the Garmin GPSMAP 62 or 78 series.  It also works with the Dakota and Oregon series.  The Chirp will act as a wireless beacon to help target the location.  This makes geocaching lots of fun and cheats a bit.  We have seen caches hidden in fake bolts.  Who the heck is going to find a fake bolt and know to open it up?

We’re the MountGuys Blog so you know we’re going to break into a conversation about the types of mounts to use.  Our favorite for geocaching is the belt clip mount.  Having your GPS on your belt beats putting it in your pocket and having it fall out.  By the way a lot of caches are hidden in the woods, so placing the GPS on your belt frees your hands for any balancing acts you might need to do.

You might be on your bike when geocaching.  Having a bike mount allows you to keep both hands on the handlebar and the GPS in front of you.

Whatever you choose to use for geocaching, you will have a lot of fun, and it’s free.  You will also discover new parts of your country that you may not normally travel through so having a good GPS at your side is an excellent idea.

Garmin Oregon on a Belt Clip

Garmin Oregon on a Belt Clip

Garmin GPSMAP 62 Bike Strap Mount

Garmin GPSMAP 62 Bike Strap Mount

 

January 8, 2011

PBA Shield Good. Car Mount Bad.

Filed under: Other Mounts & Accessories — Tags: , — mountguys @ 12:11 am

PBA shields seem to be a New Jersey thing.  If you’re lucky enough to have a close relative that’s a cop, they grant a limited number of shields to display in your windshield.  Supposedly if you ever get pulled over, the officer sees the magic shield, tells you to be careful, and gives consideration to you that a non-shield holder would not receive.  Generally speaking, these things work.

Get one and display it proudly in your windshield with the trusty shield mount.  We receive a surprising number of inquiries regarding the stock shield mounts fading and the suction cups rotting.  We can’t explain why, but we can steer you towards a replacement!

PBA Shield Car Mount

PBA Shield Car Mount

January 7, 2011

Sirius XM and FM Radio Static

Filed under: Other Mounts & Accessories — Tags: , — mountguys @ 11:40 pm

So you just got a new satellite radio and it sounds awful?  Way back in the last decade, satellite radios were able to push out a solid watt (or more) of FM signals.  The problem was it pushed the signal not just to the radio in your car, but in others that were riding alongside you.  The FCC didn’t like that and severely limited the amount of power the internal FM transmitters could push out.  Unfortunately in many cases, it’s insufficient and a lot of people return their cool Sirius or XM radios because the old car radio sounded so much better.

Fortunately there are solutions.  Using the headphone jack on your satellite radio, there are aftermarket FM transmitters that will boost your signal significantly right up to what it used to be several years ago.  Many run off a DC power source, some run off a AA battery.  Just be sure to turn off the satellite radio’s FM transmitter when using these aftermarket devices to avoid a duplicate signal.

Also worth noting, if you only have a single power source in your car, consider the purchase of a handy DC splitter for your car.

FM Transmitter for Sirius XM Radio

FM Transmitter for Sirius XM Radio

2-Way DC Power Splitter

2-Way DC Power Splitter

 

Mounting the Latest XM Sirius Car Radio Models: Stratus 6 Starmate 5 and OnyX

Filed under: Other Mounts & Accessories — Tags: , , , , , , , — mountguys @ 11:29 pm

With many new cars coming with satellite radio pre-installed, we are surprised by the number of inquiries we field on aftermarket radios.  Sirius has recently released the Stratus 6 and Starmate 5 radios.  XM is hot on the new OnyX.  Quite frankly these radios all comes with better displays and more features than the car installed radios.  The displays have more lines and most models have the ability to rewind.

There are two drawbacks.  First are obviously mounting options.  Having the radio attached via suction cup to your windshield is very 2005.  Upgrade to a vent, cup holder, floor or lighter mount.  Out of site and much easier to see.  And please don’t feed the antenna out the window, use an interior antenna mount.

Second drawback is several years ago the FCC limited the amount of wattage the FM transmitter can push out resulting in a degraded FM signal to your car radio.  We’ll be addressing this issue in a future blog post.  There are aftermarket transmitters that will push as much wattage as the older radios used to push out.

Sirius / XM Bendy Windshield Mount

Sirius / XM Bendy Windshield Mount

Sirius / XM Vent Mount

Sirius / XM Vent Mount

Sirius / XM Cup Holder Mount

Sirius / XM Cup Holder Mount

Sirius / XM Powered Lighter Mount

Sirius / XM Powered Lighter Mount

Sirius / XM Seat Bolt Floor Mount

Sirius / XM Seat Bolt Floor Mount

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