PTx Trimble Enhances CenterPoint RTX for Uptime and Accuracy

Apr 15, 2024

Seamless Automatic Switching Between Cellular and Satellite Corrections

In the world of precision agriculture, accurate GPS positioning is essential for tasks like automated steering and application control.

Farms.com recently spoke with PTx Trimble Senior Product Director Cory Buchs about PTx Trimble’s CenterPoint RTX correction source an industry leader, providing high-precision GPS correction data.

What’s a correction source? Essentially it is what takes a low source GPS position and gives it the precision and accuracy required for precision agriculture technology. This data refines the raw GPS signal from satellites, enabling farm equipment to operate with greater accuracy.

Traditionally, correction data could be delivered via cellular or satellite networks.

PTx Trimble's latest enhancement to CenterPoint RTX focuses on maximizing uptime and availability of the correction signal. The system can now automatically switch between cellular and satellite delivery in real-time.

This ensures uninterrupted operation even in areas with poor satellite reception. If cellular reception weakens, the system seamlessly switches to satellite delivery, and vice versa. Farmers can now focus on their work without worrying about signal interruptions affecting their equipment's precision.

"We can switch to cellular and ensure that your corrections are always there, always available, and you can continue to operate seamlessly," Buchs says.

With this improvement, PTx Trimble's CenterPoint RTX offers farmers a reliable and dependable solution for maintaining high-precision GPS correction in their agricultural operations. This translates to increased efficiency, better accuracy, and ultimately, improved farm productivity.

Watch the video below to learn more about the PTx Trimble CenterPoint RTX correction source.

Video: Spring 2026 weather outlook for Wisconsin; What an early-arriving El Niño could mean

Northeast Wisconsin is a small corner of the world, but our weather is still affected by what happens across the globe.

That includes in the equatorial Pacific, where changes between El Niño and La Niña play a role in the weather here -- and boy, have there been some abrupt changes as of late.

El Niño and La Niña are the two phases of what is collectively known as the El Niño Southern Oscillation, or ENSO for short. These are the swings back and forth from unusually warm to unusually cold sea surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean along the equator.

Since this past September, we have been in a weak La Niña, which means water temperatures near the Eastern Pacific equator have been cooler than usual. That's where we're at right now.

Even last fall, the long-term outlook suggested a return to neutral conditions by spring and potentially El Niño conditions by summer.

But there are some signs this may be happening faster than usual, which could accelerate the onset of El Niño.

Over the last few weeks, unusually strong bursts of westerly winds farther west in the Pacific -- where sea surface temperatures are warmer than average -- have been observed. There is a chance that this could accelerate the warming of those eastern Pacific waters and potentially push us into El Niño sooner than usual.

If we do enter El Nino by spring -- which we'll define as the period of March, April and May -- there are some long-term correlations with our weather here in Northeast Wisconsin.

Looking at a map of anomalously warm weather, most of the upper Great Lakes doesn't show a strong correlation, but in general, the northern tiers of the United States do tend to lean to that direction.

The stronger correlation is with precipitation. El Niño conditions in spring have historically come with a higher risk of very dry weather over that time frame, so this will definitely be a transition we'll have to watch closely as we move out of winter.