Our Topcon base-rover combo generally has no trouble being a mile apart, although for security I like to keep them closer together.
Yesterday I found a small area (500' long and approx. 100' wide) where my radio link would drop to 0%. It's an extremely rural area with rolling hills. I moved the base to a different control point that was closer (within 1000'), and I could physically see the base. It didn't help a bit.
After a frustrating hour we decided to get what we could. To my bewilderment, all of the "dead-zone' shots were at the same elevation. We stuck pin flags at the points where the radio link dropped to zero and it looked like I was flagging a contour line?!
Thinking the problem might be elevation related, I raised and lowered the rover rod to optimize the link. No joy. Very mysterious to be standing in a pasture, no trees within 500' or any other obstruction and have the link drop to zero. Move 2' one direction or the other and it would fix.
Anybody else ever run into a situation like this?
you're too close to the geoid, raise the rod a little and you will get signal again;)
I don't know about the bluetooth worm hole but I've been getting some really weird behavior out of my Hiperlite RTK set. I've been using this set for 4 years now and have never run into this before. It occurs only on one particular job site and nowhere else.
I am on a very congested construction site where me (utilities), the paving guys and the dirt guys are all operating hiperlite sets. The dirt guys are using blade control on about four different tractors and two motor graders.
On this job the dirt guys started work first and were there two weeks ahead of me and the paving contractor. The dirt guy had established a permanent base on a steel post with a bolt on top. He sets his hiperlite base up on that every morning and takes it down every night.
Me and the paving guy, instead of having mutiple base's set up around site and having to mess with changing radio frequencies all the time, we both started using the dirt guys base and did our own site localization with our separate rovers.
The issue the paving guy and I are both having is we set a point in the typical manner for a horizontal location, a hub & tack, 60d nail or whatever and then when we shoot it the second time for grade, to mark up the stake, we consistently get a horizontal error of 0.23 - 0.26 easterly. You set another point at that distance to the east and then when you shoot it for grade you get moved back the opposite direction to the location of your original point. It seems to shift back and forth, about 0.25, east to west every couple of minutes. The concrete guy is getting the exact same result. This effect is consistent and remains the same every day, all day.
I am wondering if the dirt guy has some oddball setting in what his base is transmitting that would cause this effect?
Are we related? 😉
Possibly... LOL
My daughter provided my avatar ape and insist that I use it everywhere...
I think I've fixed it...
My hired hand thinks the new hat might work. If it doesn't, I don't know what we'll do all day...
I think I've fixed it...
I can think of three or four things but I think they are all illegal in Oklahoma.
I think I've fixed it...
Heck I've passed through Rachel Nevada and stopped at the "Ale-E-Inn" on the extratestical highway and SHE wasn't there... Tons of corn fed honeys though...
P.S. Deral...
Deral, please take a look at my comment above and tell me what you think is up with my setup. I've already hit Danny up at Midwest and he thinks it's my imagination... LOL
P.S. Deral...
PC. I've been mulling over that one today. Maybe I'll have some input tomorrow. Have you tried yours without any of the other crews running their GPS? Localizing always worries me. You can get weird stuff happening with the results because it is constantly recomputing stuff sometimes.
I'm looking at my manuals now and trying to see what might be happening.
P.S. Deral...
maybe a time for a scanner to see who is on your frequency
for those short ranges turn all bases down to 1 watt or less
pick a frequency that is far away from other users based on scanner
P.S. Deral...
Could be local RF (radio frequency) interference. FM broadcast signals (88 to 106 mhz) will propagate into multiple harmonics to end up either right on the GPS frequencies or the frequency of your base/rover transmitter-receivers. I have never been much of a RTK guy, but if you have multiple frequencies on your RTK radios, you should try switching frequencies to get off of the local RF harmonic frequency. If the harmonic is on the GPS signal, you are SOL, as that deterioration of the L1 cannot be compensated before, or corrected in any way. Another thing you can do is post process some baselines on your site, and if they process fine, you can narrow it down to RTK interconnect radio issue. Thats my idea for tonight, going to have that beer.
P.S. Deral...
Thanks guys for the input! I will try tomorrow to tweak my radio frequencies and see what that does...
P.S. Deral...
I used some older static Leica stuff that was super sensitive. We couldn't use our radios or cell phones while they were active. I'd bet you're getting some interference. Might could be a nearby cell tower.
One job me and Taso were working on with our S6 kept interfering with tennis court builder's and their machine control setups. Either they or we stopped when we got near each other. Usually we'd all try to be nice and just stay away from each other if possible.
