Hi,
you can read and save nmea sentences directly from gps chip to a file
from the very beginning (hot or cold start) so no-fix recording is possible.
Saved nmea sentences you can open in VisualGPS or another
off-line gps utility to see a number of satellites in view, signal strength
and more.
If I open terminal I can read nmea sentences on-the-fly and save to a file.

Darius