It wasn't clear to me whether or not the recommended StrikeLink GPS was weatherproof. Since we live in a Faraday cage of a house (Low-E windows, stucco wire, aluminum shingles) I need to put it outside. (Correspondence from Relko since I built this indicates that it is, in fact, supposed to be weatherproof...)
Erring on the side of caution, I decided to make a radome for it, rather like the ones I've made for the Boltek antenna.
(As I was building this, it occurred to me that another, easier way to weatherproof this inexpensive GPS would be to dunk it in Plasti-Dip a couple of times.)
The GPS just fits inside 2" PVC plumbing fittings, so I purchased a 2" slip cap, 2" - 1 1/2" slip-slip reducer, and a 1 1/2" - 1/2" slip-slip reducer. I think I would have preferred threaded 2" fittings, but Home Depot didn't have them.
File the hole in the reducer big enough to pass the USB connector on the GPS cable.
Glue the 1 1/2" - 1/2" slip-slip reducer into the 2" - 1 1/2" slip-slip reducer. I used clear PVC cement and no primer since this is not going to hold water pressure.
Wedge the GPS into the cap, top toward the bottom of the cap. Thread the cable through the assembled reducers.
Slip the cap onto them. Because the GPS takes up some space, it will not be a full fit. I put a little grease onto the outside of the reducer to make future disassembly easier. The truly brave could glue the cap on.
Fabricate a mount. I used some aluminum bar for an eave mount. An alternate mount would be to use some PVC pipe for a mast. I don't know if the USB connector will fit down 1/2" Schedule 40 PVC or Class 200, or if you'd need to use 3/4" pipe.
Mount it and test it. Temporarily up on the eave, this receives at least 9 satellites, compared to 5 or 6 down on the ground where I had the GPS earlier.
