GPS Antenna Ground Plate

Many magnetic mount GPS antennas rely on being mounted on a car or other large metallic object to provide a good ground plane. But what if you want to use an antenna not on a car? The GPS Antenna Ground Plate is the solution! This plate significantly increases the performance of GPS and GNSS antennas.

We're always trying to improve things here at SparkFun. This updated design features a 1/4-20 UNC nut welded to the bottom of a thinner plate (1/8" is now 1/16"). The nut adds additional thickness so now the tripod screw is no longer prone to the plate. We've also decreased the thickness of the plate to reduce weight.

The steel disc provides a ground plane for a low cost u-blox ANN-MB-00 antenna and enables centimeter-level positioning when coupled with a L1/L2 capable GNSS receiver such as the ZED-F9P.

The 1/16” thick steel plate fits onto the standard ¼-20 UNC camera mounting screw. While it is not the cleanest piece of steel and weighs in at a hefty 0.4211 lbs, it does provide a solid base to allow a GPS Magnetic Mount Antenna to sit flat on the ground plane while mounted to a tripod.

Features:

• Diameter: 4 Inches
• Thickness: 1/16"
• Weight: 0.4211 lbs
• Center Thread: 1/4-20 UNC Thread
• Finish: Industrial

Documents:

• u-blox white paper on using low cost antennas for RTK