Ok to run Hiper+ without radio antenna?

I have a personal preference to always run with the antenna, no matter the brand. I have seen 4 or 5 radios burn up because "the radio was off" and the unit was ran without an antenna. I have also seen a few external radios burn up because of kinked communication cables or a bad antenna connection (not sure about this being the actual cause, but remain suspicious).

I too have seen someone else's Hiper+ rover burn up without an antenna. They were using it on an RTN.

I Believe NGS Calibrated The Receiver With The Antenna

So why introduce any more error by not having it on.

Paul in PA

Worked for a company in Florida that ran Hipers of all varieties. Started with base and rover combos, but those all got turned into network rovers. We were told we had to have the antenna on them as long as we were using them, no matter the configuration.

The radio transmitter needs a 'load' (antenna) or it will burn up, depending on the power level output, it may burn up later rather than sooner. This is true with any transmitter, be it a business radio, citizens band, or big honkin County radio station! The transmitter may be able to be turned off, but do you want to take that chance?

I Believe NGS Calibrated The Receiver With The Antenna

Is the gps antenna tuned to expect it up there? I'm thinking about buying a dummy load and making a plastic shield to go over the stub so there's nothing to get caught on brush.

There was a time when the Hipers first came out that Topcon neglected to inform the consumer that having the unit on without the antennae, you would run the risk of burning out the radio. Then after way too many radios were burning out, they ran a lot of advertisements saying not to do this.

One of those consumers was me, when I neglected to turn the unit off, removed the said antennae and placed the unit in the box for a cozy ride home after a long day.

Next day was a very bad day that eventually cost me $3000 in repair and another $2000 in a rental.

Never, I repeat never turn on any survey grade GPS unit without the antennae screwed on, no matter.

This advice comes from the guy that shelled out the bucks in the first place, no back up GPS in the closet.

Randy

I have run Trimble r6 and r4 rovers on vrs for over 5 years without ever having had the antennas screwed in.

No problems yet , one of the rovers is still configured as a base and both radios still work fine in base rover setup for every now and then we use the radios to transmit corrections.

If the radios on your hipers are Receive only radios , I can't see why they would burn out if the antenna was off .

I once let a brand new set of hipers on charge 24 hrs. They were on and no antenna. They were very warm but no damage

I have been told by Hayes to make sure the antenna is on the Hiper Lite Plus unit before turning it on. As I understand it when it network mode the radio gets turned off but the sentiment is to not take a chance with it.

One thing to be careful of that I noticed is what happens when you run the battery out so the unit is dead. When you come back into the office to charge it when it comes back to life the unit will be on. So under these circumstance you need to make sure you put the antenna on before you charge it. At least that has been my experience.

I never turn on my Hiper Lites without the antennas on. I never charge them without the antennas on. I never download them without the antennas on.

If they are out of the box, the antenna is on. That was one of the lessons I learned when I started learning GPS with the base radios. The radios have to have a way to transmit.

It is just so easy, I just don't want to take a chance.