200 foot RTK limit

[Bruce Dawson]

Hello everyone,

Today I had a strange day with my gear. I was on a flat site, good sky, no real obstructions. I setup my system normally, base on a known point with radio link broadcasting corrections. All looked good, checked into another monument about 100 feet away, good check. I moved out into the open field to set some property corners and boom! About 200 feet away the radio link goes to yellow then to red. I check the frequency I am using and find it's crap (red), so I change to a cleaner blue one. My radio connection is green, then a few seconds later boom! Yellow and red. I walk back to the base and when I get about 100 feet away, all is green. I can find nothing amiss, so I shut everything down, recheck the frequencys and choose a blue one, then restart the base. All green. I move back out into the field and at about 200 feet I am back to red.

First, my system:
Triumph LS
Triumph 2
HPT 404BT

I have had something like this happen before when my battery was old and dying. I hooked up the HPT to my truck battery. No change, still limited to 100 feet or so. My portable battery is actually less than 6 months old. Yesterday I was on a much more challenging site and was tieing control mons a half mile away. The only thing that was different was that this morning I popped a fuse on my portable battery. I have had this happen before, and a new fuse made no difference.

Thanks for any help!

Bruce

 

[Matt Johnson]

You should look at the UHF status screen by tapping the UHF icon on the home screen. There is much more useful information on it to diagnose the problem. If you have the problem again share a screenshot of this screen.

 

[Bruce Dawson]

Actually, I did that Matt. I was going to post them before, but had to research how to get them!

With everything green, 29 feet away:

Red, about 200 feet away:

 

[Adam]

. The only thing that was different was that this morning I popped a fuse on my portable battery.

How did this happen? Do you make sure to connect cable to battery before connecting cable to the radio? I'm curious, I have never blew a fuse on either on of my batteries?

 

[Bruce Dawson]

Cable is connected to the battery always, Adam. I just connect the cable to the radio after hooking up the antenna. I pop a fuse pretty regularly, maybe once every couple of months.

 

[Nate The Surveyor]

I have a 4 watt radio. I was told to make, or break the connection at one of the flat connectors. Never at the big one, on the radio itself, that has a bunch of pins. (It can blow something inside the radio).

Also, I always shut the radio down with the LS, before making, or breaking any connections. This way, its not doing tx (transmit), while making, or breaking connections.
Maybe this will help.
N

 

[Matt Johnson]

The received strength of the radio signal (RSSI - Received Signal Strength Indicator) is poor. Being so close this would indicate a hardware problem. Are you still not able to get the radio to work properly at all? Try switching to the external UHF antenna if you haven't already.

 

[Matthew D. Sibole]

I had that problem about 2 years ago. It was a semi-severed connection on my radio antenna (the old style right where it went into the antenna base). New cable and back to normal.

Sounds like you have a broken wire or two in your antenna cable to me or it is something is broken in your radio.

 

[Bruce Dawson]

Thanks everyone for the ideas! I suspect it's the antenna connection issue Matthew suggested as I do have the old style and have been concerned about this for a while. I thought it would be a total loss of signal when it broke, not a partial loss. I think also I will take Nate's advice and begin connecting power at the flat connector, not the RS-232 style pin connector at the radio itself. Might save me some fuses. Not sure how you shut down the radio from the LS, however. I always shut down the base of course, then just turn everything off manually.

Testing today, it seems...

 

[Nate The Surveyor]

Not sure how you shut down the radio from the LS,

Begin download. It shuts down the radio, at that moment.
It's not transmitting, if its downloading. This way, the radio is not pulling much current, at the moment that it's unplugged, or plugged in.
N

 

[Bruce Dawson]

Thanks Nate, I will do that when I download.

 

[Adam]

I still think connecting the battery first, then plugging in the radio, is the safest way. It would be reverse for disconnecting. If the radio is plugged in and someone accidently plugs in the wrong wire or alligator clip on the wrong terminal it could damage the radio.

I think Matt may be right. I also think maybe your blown fuses could be a result of frayed or broken wires.

 

[Shawn Billings]

I still think connecting the battery first, then plugging in the radio, is the safest way. It would be reverse for disconnecting. If the radio is plugged in and someone accidently plugs in the wrong wire or alligator clip on the wrong terminal it could damage the radio.

I think Matt may be right. I also think maybe your blown fuses could be a result of frayed or broken wires.

This is not correct for the HPT404BT sequence. There should be a tag on the battery cable that says to not plug the battery first. I experienced this a few years ago:

https://support.javad.com/index.php?threads/proper-order-for-connecting-battery-to-modem.300/

 

[Adam]

This is not correct for the HPT404BT sequence. There should be a tag on the battery cable that says to not plug the battery first. I experienced this a few years ago:

https://support.javad.com/index.php?threads/proper-order-for-connecting-battery-to-modem.300/

I didn't know that. I use the 435 radio.

 

[Shawn Billings]

The 404 connects differently. Power is sent through the 15pin port. There is not specific power port on the 404 as there is on the 435.

 

[Adam]

Thanks Shawn, wow that was 2014. Time flies.

 

[Bruce Dawson]

Yep, Shawn is correct. There is a tag indicating the antenna should be plugged in first, which I have always done. I think Nate is saying that the pin connector should be plugged into the radio after that, then the flat connector in-line should be connected to the line from the battery, powering up the unit.

 

[Shawn Billings]

That's not the note I was referring to. I think the tag also says to first plug the power cable into the radio then plug the power cable into the battery. This tag was added some time later due to the discussion I linked above. And yes, as I mentioned in the discussion I linked to, I used the "flat" SAE connector to power up the radio. This avoided blowing fuses. I avoided using "flat" connector because the 15 pin connector could be considered flat.

And yes, always plug the antenna in first before powering on the radio.

 

[Bruce Dawson]

The antenna cable was definitely the problem. While testing it today, I moved it around trying to get the signal to come back in. It broke completely off! So now my question is which replacement cable is the right one. Looks like there are 2 options, "UHF Ant Cable TNC Pole Mount" or "UHF Ant Cable SMA Pole Mount".

 

[Matthew D. Sibole]

I use the Tnc pole mount. It has a 5/8” thread that can be screwed onto a rover pole.