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Watertown, WI | Looking at adding RTK on to our farm. Been reading about all the choices. I feel like the best option for us is cellular corrections as we can travel up to about 15 miles from the home farm and the ground rolls pretty good around us. I contacted the Wisconsin CORS network and they are adding a $300 yearly / $50 monthly fee starting in summer 2018. At the moment, I will probably just start with the planting tractor, but I assume I will be wanting to add it on another machine for spraying or side dressing once I become addicted. The fee would be per machine. So that leaves with 3 real options that I would like to have some agtalk input on...
1) Use WISCORS VRS on each machine with a NTRIP client (e.g. Intuicom RTK Bridge M/C). Was the original plan until I found out they are adding the fee. While I know the fee is fairly reasonable compared to other subscriptions, it does add up with multiple machines.
2) Use WISCORS VRS on the home farm with an NTRIP client (e.g. Intuicom RTK Bridge E) that can be accessed serially through a cellular modem on each machine dialing into a static IP. Advantage is that I still have farm-based correction data without the cost of owning a base station and only 1 subscription fee. Disadvantage is that I know I will be losing accuracy when I get 10-15 miles from the home farm. Also, I am concerned about correction age as my farm internet service is wireless (but is a licensed band and fairly reliable).
3) Buy a basic used base station (e.g MS750/AgGPS 900) and set it up at the home farm sharing the correction data in the same manner as option 2. This eliminates the need for any subscription requirement.
So my question to you guys is as follows:
Do you think I need to worry about being 10-15 miles from the base station corrections?
Is VRS corrections to each machine worth the added subscription expenses?
Do you think I need to worry about correction age/reliability sharing it through my wireless internet correction.
I think I should be able to round up a used base receiver and L1/L2 globe for $1k - $1.5k. Tractor hardware would be close to the same cost for either option. Using that pricing in mind, do you guys think it is better to invest in my own station or to pay for CORS?
Aaron | |
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CORS vs Private Base via Cellular
