I am wondering if I can boost the radio performance of my Spectra SP80's internal UHF radios by moving the antenna off the bottom of the receiver and up into the air using a prism pole with a bipod/tripod.?ÿ I would buy a +/- 10ft coax antenna extension cable with TNC connectors and simply attach the stock factory antenna (rubber duckie whip antenna) to the end of the cable and then zip tie the end of the cable to the end of the prism pole.?ÿ If this is successful, I will consider getting the appropriate pole mount with cable with the NMO style antenna mounting (which of course requires a new antenna, which in turn should help me even more).?ÿ I'm only considering this at the base with no change at the rover (stock rubber duckie inside the UHF extension).?ÿ Will this help increase my range??ÿ Any idea how much (distance increase)??ÿ I'd like to be able to gain another 1,000 feet or so transmitting in areas where woods are between base and rover.?ÿ Also, any information on helping me pick out the most appropriate or best cabling/antenna is much appreciated.?ÿ (I already learned in the past about making sure to choose an antenna that does NOT require a ground plane - a dealer had sold us a wrong antenna which did require a ground plane.)
Some info concerning my current results:?ÿ A year ago I did a distance test on our SP80 base and Rover with the interna UHF radios in a wide open fairly flat environment and got 6,090 feet max range.?ÿ What I am seeing now in "real world conditions" where there are woods between base and rover and/or my rover is significantly lower in elevation, I am only getting around 1,800 feet of range.?ÿ Yesterday I moved up in elevation and into a wide open field (still woods between base and rover) and I was able to regain radio link at about 3,200 feet.?ÿ Being a former Topcon Hiper II and Hiper V (with digital II UHF radios) user, I am not used to these radio troubles at such short ranges.?ÿ After using the SP80's for a little over a year now, I would not choose them because of their weak radios (unless I can come to a decent solution).
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Thanks!
-Garry
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Check out page 87 of the SP80 user guide. My internal radios came with an approx. 6" cable (part #96845) that replaces the duckie antenna for use with an external antenna. I have not tried it yet though.
Gregg
Thanks for the tip to look at the manual.?ÿ I was just in the manual this morning to lookup how to shut down a static file recording from the unit's buttons, but for some reason I didn't even think to look in the manual for "external antenna".?ÿ That antenna setup shown in the manual is identical to the setup I did using an old PacCrest PDL radio on an old Topcon system.?ÿ So that confirms routing the antenna externally for use with the internal radio is apparently worth doing.?ÿ (I've only used external antenna's with external higher powered radios.)?ÿ I do have the short 6" cable (coaxial adapter per the manual).?ÿ One thing they don't address in the manual is whether or not they are proposing use of a different antenna & a mount, which according to the pictures they are.?ÿ
I've been told in the past that antennas and cabling need to be properly "tuned" and apparently performance can go south real quick if you use the wrong components.?ÿ I just want to be sure I'm not making things worse!?ÿ I'll have to order the cable and then perform a range test to see how much difference it makes.?ÿ
Thanks!
-Garry
@gbunk Cool, let us know how it goes. I'm looking for more radio range too.
Gregg
@gbunk Do you have them config in the modem on 2 Watt? I had the same problem with limited range. Make some calls and dealer had me check the modem configuration of the base and rover. Changed it to 2 watt(most powerful) and I get 2-3 miles now. I survey large timber tracts with tall pines. They are best Ive used(now)
@mapper6683:
I'm pretty sure my units only display "1 watt" as the highest option.
-Garry
Try downloading ADLCONF_Setup.zip from the Spectra website. This should allow you the option to change to 2-Watt. Do this with both receivers.
@pencerules:
Well, according to the document "SP80 UHF Radio Settings" I would need the dealer dongle to use that software, so it seems I'll have to contact my dealer rep. to stop by my office (which probably won't be for months given the current situation).?ÿ I would try to use the software, but I don't have the serial cable at home right now to try it anyway.?ÿ
On another note, while reading that above linked document, I see they are recommending using "ATOM Compact" for the message format.?ÿ Our dealer has us setup using RTCM3.2.?ÿ We do have 1 old Epoch 50 which I would like to be able to fire up on a rare occasion and use as a 2nd rover with the SP80 base.?ÿ I just went through having that unit configured correctly with my dealer rep about 6 months ago (this is after he setup our SP80's on RTCM3.2).?ÿ I believe that Epoch50 uses RTCM3.0 (perhaps it is RTCM3.2, not sure).?ÿ However the linked document says to use CMR+ if you use an SP80 base with an Epoch50 rover.?ÿ Does anyone know if these message types affect radio range, or have other consequences with position quality??ÿ I seem to remember now as I type this that we needed to use RTCM3.2 to take advantage of the "additional satellite systems" (Galileo, Beidou, etc.).?ÿ Of course the Epoch50 doesn't support those additional systems, so CMR+ makes sense for it (though I wish the manual spelled out that CMR+ doesn't support them in the case of someone trying to use both an SP80 and Epoch50 rover).?ÿ I'm assuming the ATOM Compact does support the additional satellites since it is their recommended setting.?ÿ I have yet to actually use the Epoch50 as a 2nd rover (hardly a need since I'm 99% of the time solo now) so I could switch my settings to ATOM Compact if it really makes a difference.?ÿ So, bottom line question: would I see any significant difference switching from using RTCM3.2 to ATOM Compact??ÿ
Thanks!
-Garry
@gbunk interesting? ours only display 2 watt.
@pencerules @gbunk Yes do this....I may have left out the part where we upgraded all the firmware and the 2 watt option.
Okay, I took a look at our SP80's settings this morning and also used ADLCONFIG without a dealer dongle.?ÿ I found that our units do in fact display 2 watt for maximum power, so no luck gaining output by changing/adding that setting.?ÿ I did find that our rover was set to "Low" for sensitivity when it should be set to "high" (the base was correctly set to "Low").?ÿ They were also running the Trimmark 3@9600 protocol instead of the Spectra recommended "Transparent FST", so I changed that.?ÿ I also noticed that the radio firmware was on version 1.34, so I upgraded base & rover heads to the latest version 2.04 (ADLCONFIG does let you upgrade firmware without the dealer dongle).?ÿ Lastly I changed the correction message type to the recommended Atom Compact, which I will just have to change back if I ever do need to connect the Epoch 50.?ÿ The SP80 firmware was already updated to the latest.?ÿ I've made a couple of different changes, so it will be difficult to tell which change made the big difference (if there is one - I'm hopeful).?ÿ I also have the 10ft antenna cable arriving today.?ÿ I'm afraid that I won't have the time to test properly, so I'll have to wait to do a proper test and post back.
@mapper6683:
?ÿ?ÿ?ÿ?ÿ?ÿ?ÿ?ÿ?ÿ?ÿ?ÿ Can you confirm your radio settings and your setup??ÿ Are you running the stock rubber duckie antenna mounted directly to the unit inside the UHF extension??ÿ
Thanks!
-Garry
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Well my use of the radio with the stock antenna booted up on a 12ft prism pole using my new extension cable at the same site as last week sucked! Radio performance was worse. I'm suspecting the extension cable is causing signal loss. I'll be back there again soon, so I'm going to put the antenna back where it was (inside UHF extension) but keep my radio config changes to see if those made any difference.?ÿ
-Garry
?ÿPic of my base setup with the external antenna.?ÿ
Method of attachment.?ÿ
-Garry
@gbunk yes I am and I’ll take a look at the settings per unit. Can you tell me what ones specifically?
Can you confirm all the radio settings: format (correction message type)?, Protocol?, Forward Error Correction (FEC) on or off?, Scrambling on or off?, Sensitivity levels on base and on Rover? If you can confirm the modulation type is set to 4FSK with a baud rate of 9600 that would be a bonus (think you need to get that info using ADLCONF.
I've had a conversation with another dealer that's telling me what I'm complaining about is extremely typical from other users. Seems I'll either be getting a new system or at least adding on an external radio. Anybody interested in some SP80's less than 2yrs old?
-Garry
