Yea, it can't download the almanacs unless it first has reception.

Any chance you got your hands on a bad antenna?



(Dave, almanacs are charts of where the birds are - the receiver usually collects several sets of them and then, when that is done, it uses them to do the math to determine where it is based on the signals from the birds. I'm not sure of just what data rate the almanacs and position data come down at, but the newer the receiver, the faster it gets a position, I assume due to faster uP's and better algorithms in the receiver.)