Setting up a permanent RTK base station for repeat survey work
We do a lot of repeat work at the same sites - construction monitoring, stockpile volumes, progress photos. I got tired of setting up a tripod base every visit so last month I installed a permanent base station at our most frequent site.
Sharing the setup in case anyone else is thinking about this. I mounted an Emlid RS2+ on a steel pipe monument that we poured into a concrete pier, about 4ft deep with a rebar cage. Let it cure for two weeks before doing the final static observation. Occupied it for 8 hours with OPUS to get a good coordinate.
The receiver connects to our office network via a Ubiquiti point-to-point wireless link back to the site trailer. Runs 24/7 broadcasting corrections on our own NTRIP caster (I'm using SNIP, the free version handles one mount point fine). Power is a small solar panel and a 100Ah lithium battery which keeps it running through cloudy days no problem.
Total cost was maybe $3500 including the RS2+, mounting hardware, solar setup, and the wireless link. Compare that to the $200+/month we were paying for a commercial NTRIP subscription plus the 30 minutes of setup time every visit.
The real benefit is consistency. Every dataset from this site uses the exact same base position. No worrying about base setup error, no checking that the tripod didn't get bumped. And any of our rovers can connect to it as soon as they're on site.
If you have sites you visit more than once a month, seriously consider this. Pays for itself fast.