Missouri river bottom south of Sioux City, IA | Brian
Yes, accuracy would diminish the further you get from the base but I have not yet been able to record that. I have one base that I getting 15 miles from and can’t measure the difference between it and a closer base that is 5 miles away. When I switch between the two I don’t see a position jump. Technology changes but I doubt the satellite correction signals will make RTK obsolete unless they add reference towers every 30 to 50 miles from each other. I don’t think JD or Omnistar will do that.
More RTK networks are going up, giving better coverage to those that are looking for that type a accuracy. Obviously if your not in a predominately row crop area, then a RTK network may not be setup.
I know JD has made changes with the SF2 signal/hardware from a year ago but I’ve got local guys running it that want better accuracy. There has been talk of a JD RTK network going up but have not seen it happen yet.
I’ve been using GPS in farming since 1994 and seen a lot of technology changes. The constant theme throughout these years as been for more accurate GPS receivers that will allow us to do more sight specific
operations in our fields. In 2001 after I had used the RTK Autopilot for a day I knew that would be the accuracy target everyone would be shooting for. Since then it’s been a race with who can provide the most accurate system for the least amount of money.
I don’t know how you over hype RTK if you say it gives you better repeatable accuracy then SF2, HP or XP. I’ve seen it go the other way, were SF2, HP or XP are promoted almost as good as RTK accuracy. That plays into the farmers thinking that he can buy something cheaper and get the same results. As farmers we are all guilty of it. We buy something one level below of what we really need because of price and then push it to the limits and hope we made the right decision.
Tom
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