My radio range in urban areas is only about 1500 feet with the stock INTERNAL 900mhz radios. They are set to 1 watt. I have the base as high as possible on the highest hill around, on an anchored, very stable, 15 foot prism pole. It is very difficult to tie down a section with RTK when you are limited to about 1500 feet. I dont enjoy doing static when we run out of radio range. I have some aftermarket UHF radios that are no name brand collecting dust. My question is... Can i simply plug in my radios into the base and rover using the serial cable? Does something have to be activated or purchased in order to do that from topcon? I am aware that I may have to change up the wires a little so the TX, RX, GRD and power are on the correct pins. Anyone on here done this before or have any advise besides spending a bunch of money right before Christmas. Thank you for any and all help. 🙂
To answer your question. No, you should not need any OAF to enable the use of external radios. The COM Port A and D are both open on the Hipers. You will simply need to config the radio settings to point to external com port, and not the internal radio. Which I believe is COM port C. You will still be limited to either 1.5 miles on Hipers, or 2.5 miles on Hiper + models.
When I see radio range this short on SS915, it often points to a problem with the top antennas on the Hipers. Have you tried replacing them?
Lee Green
I did try another set of radio antennas. But they were the "rubber ducky" type from the dealer. What kind of radio range do you get out of your 1watt 900mhz radios?
Radio range loss is typically one of three things: Interference, Bad Antenna, or Failing radio. Since it sound like this is the range you are typically seeing, interference is unlikely. You have tried different antennas without improvement. The next thing I would try would be to swap the receivers (make the base the rover and vice versa) you can reconfigure the radios via Topcon Receiver Utility or Modem TPS. Often if a radio is failing to transmit properly it can still receive without issue.
I plan to use the 12v supply from pin number 1 from the hiper lite to power my homemade radio. I am trying to keep the weight down so I really dont want to have to put a radio and a battery on my prism pole. The rover radio i am going to use consumes 25ma per hour. Do you think I can still get a good 8 hours out of my rtk rover if i hook into the hiperlite for power?
Good idea. Ill try that. Thanks
At the very least you should get 3500ft with obstructions. Without open area and direct line of site, over a mile.
You need this antenna.
As Dan mentioned above. If new antennas do NOT help. Then try swapping your base and rover configs.
I wouldn't try to pull any more power from the Hiper battery to run an external radio. There is barely enough power to get you 8hrs on the base as it is OEM.
thank you
I wish there was a way that i could increase the strength from my base radio that my rover could receive. Like a booster or something without having to change the stock internal radio on my rover.
> My radio range in urban areas is only about 1500 feet with the stock INTERNAL 900mhz radios. They are set to 1 watt. I have the base as high as possible on the highest hill around, on an anchored, very stable, 15 foot prism pole. It is very difficult to tie down a section with RTK when you are limited to about 1500 feet. I dont enjoy doing static when we run out of radio range. I have some aftermarket UHF radios that are no name brand collecting dust. My question is... Can i simply plug in my radios into the base and rover using the serial cable? Does something have to be activated or purchased in order to do that from topcon? I am aware that I may have to change up the wires a little so the TX, RX, GRD and power are on the correct pins. Anyone on here done this before or have any advise besides spending a bunch of money right before Christmas. Thank you for any and all help. 🙂
I have the same setup just put a new 915 radio in about a year ago I get good range if not much trees building etc which is what I would expect but sometimes I will be 1500 - 3000 ft away and have wide open area and the radio goes in and out does this sound like a bad antenna this mainly happens when I am running an agriculture program called agform 3d made by topcon does anyone have a solution or had similar problems
Once you get the radio board back to standard range. You can try a 915 high gain omni antenna with a 25ft cable that just screw's to top of Hiper in place of standard antenna. Then Place the high gain antenna on a tall pole next to your base. I've never tried this with the 915's, but it does work well on my 460 UHF radios, without any loss in battery life at base.
Lee Green
When i take off the antenna on my base and replace it with a cable that will be laying on top of the receiver and drooping over the side wont that make me lose a few satellites at the base station? I think the wire will likely block some signal.
Topconman,
I don't know the exact dynamics of this. But from experience, all I can say is it has helped more than hurt any of my work. I've been using this method for past 5 years, and I have reached over 4 miles with the UHF setup.
dshearon is right on the money. I would try switching the Base and Rover around.
Topconman, Range has everything to do with Antenna height. Getting the antenna as high as possible will greatly improve range. If you wanted to extend your range further, you would have to buy a repeater. quick google shows that Topcon sells a repeater. Topcon RE-S1 Repeater
A quick google search for "915 high gain omni antenna" and I am lost in a sea of crazy results that have probably have nothing to do with the topcon hiper lites plus gps. I dont think i can just switch the base with the rover because they dont have features enabled. I guess I am just stuck with 1500 feet for the rest of my life with the hiper lites.
When I get a chance I will find a link to correct antenna.
Not sure why you think you can not switch base and rover. The OAF features should be same on both.
What about a repeater? I have a Topcon RE-S1 that I use. It should almost double your range. You should be able to pick up one pretty reasonable, as this equipment is now old hat, but it's what I use.
However, it sounds to me like your radio is going bad. I was buying a used Hiper Lite + from a dealer, and I couldn't get very far receiving with it, either. If it's going bad, it may affect your receiving range, also, or it did with me. The dealer made it up and got me another receiver.
edit: As Lee and other said, there shouldn't be any reason you can't switch base & rover, if nothing else, temp to check radios.
Here are a couple samples of the 915 mhz high gain omni directional antenna. The cost around $100-200.
http://www.kathrein-scala.com/catalog/SL11-915-DT2.pdf
http://www.worldproducts.com/pdfs/Wireless/WPANT30104-S1B.pdf
I use the U bolts to mount a topo shoe at bottom of the antenna. The threads point down, then you can connect this to any 5/8" prism pole.
Lee Green
