sep
Member
- Location
- scotland east
the rep has a second hand mobile base station he thinks I need
what do I need to know about it
thanks for all help or advice
what do I need to know about it
thanks for all help or advice
thanks we are starting the grain drill on gps so we can rent signal at £800-£900 per year or look at buying the trimble base station
If you haven't bought anything yet, then I'd start small (and cheap!) and then trade up from there if you think you need it.
I and many others are using Trimble Rangepoint RTX (note, not RTK!) for drilling set at 4m on a 4m drill. Works brilliantly, and I really can't fault it. Upgrades are £3000 cheaper than full RTK, and the signal costs £250 a year rather than £800. Only downside is no repeatability (it drifts a little if you come back to the same field next day). £650/year saving on the signal soon adds up.
Re RTK and running your own base the cost is coming down albeit slowly. It is possible to buy a brand new mobile RTK base for less than £6,000. This should give you plenty of (radio) range on your home farm and no need for an OFCOM licence. If you need further range, up to 40 or 50 kilometres depending on your terrain, mast height etc, then it is possible to convert a mobile base into a "fixed" base by buying a more powerful radio, up to 35W maximum (anywhere between £1,500 and £2,500), and an external UHF antenna (about £150) and an external satellite antenna for the base (about £1200). You also need a tall shed, mast or pole to mount the UHF antenna as high as possible for the best range.
Of course you can always 'rent' your signal out to neighbours too, to recoup some of your investment.
the rep has a second hand mobile base station he thinks I need
what do I need to know about it
thanks for all help or advice
I know many members of this forum use Rangepoint RTX for drilling. Then again some use basic EGNOS and claim it works well. I'm just puzzled about this because Trimble themselves do not seem to qualify Rangepoint RTK for drilling:
http://agriculture.newholland.com/us/en/PLM/Documents/PLM_NH36145283.pdf
Why would upgrading a mobile base to a fixed base in that way be a bodge Rob?Pheasant surprise, that's not quite true re in field base station range.
Approx 2k and line of sight is needed. You can bodge it to a building and bodge a radio to increase range but it's just that, a bodge.
SEP, pm me your details or ring me to discuss all options
07788292441
A mobile base, is designed to be a portable unit to run off 12v battery or internal rechargeable battery.
A fixed base, installed by us or as comms etc is very different. We sort out the OfCom licence, design and build it to me the regulations of said OfCom licence. It's designed to run off mains 240 volts with back up during power cuts etc...
Sorry for rant but mobile base are excellent when used in the mobile situations. Fixed bases are excellent when needing to reach 25k etc...
I've seen a bodges base and it was awful and operating without licence thus breaking all OfCom rules and will only cause OfCom to be more strict in future if they come across this situation again. Sort of working.... And working perfectly are very different statements!