GPS Signal Strength

[VK2CSW]

Like some others about the place I have been toying with an eBay GPS receiver module and cobbling together some software to read it.

I wanted to test the behaviour of my code when the GPS lost signal.

I covered the unit with a metal bowl and connected to the unit with a terminal program (PuTTY)  Surprisingly I did not lose any signal.

I then placed the unit under two metal bowls and again little loss of signal - I lost 2 of the original 11 satellites.

I then clipped the two bowls together and connected them to earth (Faraday shield style).  Still nine satellites, GPS strength 1 Fix.

"Faraday Enclosure" :-
   

Screen capture from PuTTY.  The highlighted areas are:
A = Active GPS fix.
1 = GPS fix 1 (this is a positive fix)
09 = Number of satellites

   

How can this be?

I disconnected the GPS unit and then restarted it thinking it may be buffering, but this made no difference.  I've run it for a while now in the 'shield' but it is still reporting.

I wish my old handheld GPS unit were this sensitive