Doing the M8N upgrade I noticed something about the standard Solo GPS board that might explain some of the anomalies I've read about here. The chip's case is ground, and the copper foil does have a thin layer of adhesive which would act as an insulator unless stressed or pressed hard against something. Looking at the board, the Antenna terminal sticks up flush with the top of the metal chip case. If that were to be shorted to ground, reception would certainly be degraded. The other thing I noticed is that the battery voltage is present on the topmost terminal of the button. If that were shorted, all the cache of satellite data (and possibly setup data too) could be lost. So it does indeed seem like a Good Thing To Do to put some sort of insulating layer between the bare board and the copper foil! (See attached pic)
