Looking for anyone who has experience using the Kentucky Highway Department's VRS network. Curious about thoughts, accuracy experienced, speed, etc.
I used a Topcon GRS-1, and when I could get the GRS-1 to work, it worked great. I had some problems though. My main concern is when I was over 15 miles from the closest Highway department, I would have trouble getting a fix, even switching to the VRS mount point.
Thanks for any info or experience.
I use the exact same setup out of Louisville KY. If you are not on AT&T or Verizon data service, that may be the culprit. I use AT&T on my phone, but am considering a Verizon MiFi. Verizon has better coverage in rural areas. If your unit goes to float one or two minutes after you turn it on you have data. If it stays autonomous for several minutes, and then floats, your data may be intermittent. I have places that the VRS correction will not fix, but single baseline correction will. If you are working near southern Indiana you can request a login from INDOT and use their system. This way you can see if it is a data problem. I haven't known both systems to be down at the same time.
The data connection has been constant with full signal with AT&T. It has happened in different areas as well (Elizabethtown, Bardstown & Upton). On the last time it happened I contacted the highway department and was told I was connected to the network, but my equipment would not get a fix. Making sure others are working completely.
If you are traveling 15-20 miles between observations, you may want to reset the NV RAM in the setup menu. This clears your previous position and you reacquire satellites from scratch. I've had decent success with this when I couldn't get a fixed position.
In those locations you mention, I doubt you are having network problems.
At each site I was using a different job file for each, and even tried clearing the NVRAM and reseting the RTK, nothing worked.
I appreciate the responses. I was wanting to verify the equipment I was using was the problem, and not the network.
> 15 miles should not be any problem at all. I agree that comms might be the culprit. if you could borrow a phone/Mifi from another carrier to check. Even had one crew set up next to a coffee shop that had free Wifi to do a comms check.
That is actually one of my major complaints with the WSRN. I am never able to obtain a fix inside Starbucks.
> That is a head scratcher. I realize that has happened at more than one spot, but for arguments sake it would be wonderful if you coould check with another carrier. It is not uncommon to see lots of bars, but still have inconsistent data (which is kind of disturbing).
Love or hate Javad, one thing I see that he advertises is a way to actually analyze the signal you are getting, at least on the GNSS side. If you could do that on both the cellular network level and the GNSS signals, it might do a lot to make our lives more understandable.
