We have all survey pro and SP80s. We have watched a base rover set up of the topcon VRs go 3 times as far(4miles) as we can. We loved our topcon units from yrs ago but when topcon and survey pro(spectra)(Trimble) stopped playing nice we had to go with the sp80s. ?ÿThey work great in all kinds of cover. Is the new magnet user friendly and more importantly glitch free? Is it worth leaving survey pro for the added range of the Vrs?
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I wouldn't switch brands for radio issues, especially when you are not a fan of the field software, as it is far easier to adapt procedures and/or pick up a repeater.
If I remember correctly, the VRs only have a 1W radio (could be mistaken) while the SP80s have 2W (pretty sure about that).
With proper procedures, 2W should get you up to 5-6 miles in optimal conditions, and up to 3 miles in most conditions. External power source at the base, external higher-gain antenna at the base (and possibly at the rover), boosting the antenna up high with an extension pole, placing the base on higher ground...there are all sorts of things that can improve transmit/receive without scrapping your entire setup.
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Do these jeans make my butt look big?
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The SP80's have two types of poles.?ÿ
The old style was long enough to allow a good End-Fed-Dipole with significant gain to be screwed on under the head, inside the pole. These old poles were about 1 meter long.
The new style (I think it is 30 cm long) only allows enough room for a 1/4 wavelength unity gain (at best) antenna to be screwed on.
Difference between a high quality antenna and the 1/4 wavelength is a big deal. Heck, even the difference between different EF-Dipoles is significant.
If you have the new poles, you should have gotten a little 10" long antenna extension cable which you can (barely) fish out the hole in the side of the pole. Then you can tape a decent antenna to the outside of the pole. Alternatively you can put a decent antenna on the head directly and then fish the end of the antenna out the hole.
It is hard to compare difference between the three antenna in the picture above. They all basically seem 'about' the same, but I had the ProComms specially built with the center frequency at the center of my personal FCC licensed frequencies and lots of customers have agreed that they are significantly better than the other two (especially when you consider they are all about the same cost.) However, any of these EF-Dipoles smoke any 1/4 wavelength ducky.
There is also the issue of radio protocol. I find that either of the 9600 baud 'SATEL' modes have better range than the 9600 baud 'TRANS FST' mode.
So I guess the summary is: it might not be the radio, it might be the antenna or the radio protocol.
Magnet is fine, like any software, you need to be flexible to what it does and mainly how it does it.
I see there is a new SP85, something to consider
Satisfied with Magnet since the first version. We purchased it because of ease of use for those who are not hard core survey software users. Nothing is perfect.?ÿ