[gkey]

Kevin, I think you are right on the frequency issue. I did a search on Google "Garmin handheld no reception" and landed on a blog site, where someone wrote about the same thing. He stated that he contacted Garmin about the fact that his 396 would loose satellite reception out of the blue from time to time, and apparently they confirmed it was inteference with certain frequencies.

Get this: they sent him an "old" antenna (from the previous 196 series) and told him to try it. Apparently he does not have the problem anymore. Makes me wish I kept my 196...

I went to my plane yesterday to connect the antenna(s). I waited 30 minutes for the 396 to aquire satellites, and not a single one appeared on the screen. I took the handheld out, snapped on the little stub antenna and brought it home. I made it stand on the balcony railing were it had at least 270 degrees of clear view. Again it took about 20 minutes, but at last it aquired the satellites. I thought maybe it took that long because I had not used it for about 4 months, and it was setting up the whole calendar again from scratch. But, alas, I switched it off and on again, and waited another half hour before it would start getting the satellites. I can remember my 196 was as quick as lightning. Why is this unit so slow???