Your controller shows a status word. It tells you how good your position is right now.
- SingleNo corrections at all. Your position could be off by several meters.More: no CorrectionsLive info from a base station about how far off the satellite signals are, so your rover can cancel out the error.More at all. You are off by meters.
- FloatA middle RTK status. Corrections are coming in but the math isn't finished, so you're only good to about a foot.More: corrections are coming in, but the receiver hasn't finished its math. You are off by roughly a foot (decimeters).
- FixThe best RTK status. The receiver has finished its math and your position is good to a couple of centimeters.More: the math is done. You are within a couple of centimeters.
Here is what "the math" means. NGSNational Geodetic Survey. The part of NOAA that runs the official US coordinate system, CORS and OPUS.More's guidelines explain that the RoverThe receiver that moves around the job, like a survey pole or a drone. It uses the base's corrections to find its exact spot.More first makes a rough guess at how many signal waves sit between it and each satellite. That guess has decimals in it, which is the float stage. Then it locks in the exact whole numbers. That is the fixed stage. Only a fix gives you centimeter-level positions.
RTKReal-time kinematic. A way to make GPS accurate to about an inch by getting live corrections from a nearby base station.More status
FIX
math finished: within ~2 cm
RTK status
FLOAT
corrections in, math not done: ~1 ft
RTK status
SINGLE
no corrections: off by meters
Illustrative diagram by FixFinder, not to scale.
What knocks you off a fix
- Blocked sky: trees, buildings and hills hide satellites. Fewer satellites, bunched together, make weaker geometry. Your receiver shows this as PDOPA score for how well spread out your satellites are. Lower is better. Satellites bunched in one part of the sky give a high, bad PDOP.More (a higher number is worse).
- MultipathWhen a satellite signal bounces off a wall, truck or water before it reaches you, like an echo. It throws off your position.More: signals bouncing off walls, trucks or water before they reach you, like an echo.
- Elevation maskA setting that ignores satellites lower than a chosen angle above the horizon, because low signals are noisy.More: satellites low on the horizon are noisy. NGS suggests ignoring anything below 10 to 15 degrees.
- BaselineThe distance between the base station and your rover. Shorter is better for accuracy.More length: the farther you are from the base, the more the air above you differs from the air above it. See Baseline length.
- Weak internet link: slow or dropped cell data. Watch the "Age of correctionsHow old the latest correction message is, in seconds. If it keeps climbing, your internet link is struggling.More" number. If it keeps climbing, the link is the problem.
- Wrong Mount pointOne specific correction stream on a caster, like one channel on a radio. Each one comes from a certain station or network setup.More: a channel that doesn't send the satellite systems or signals your receiver uses.
- Space weather: activity in the IonosphereA high layer of the atmosphere charged by the sun. It slows down GPS signals and can make getting a fix harder.More (a high layer of the atmosphere) can slow down or block a fix.
Still stuck on float? Go through Troubleshooting no-fix.
Sources (checked Oct 16, 2026):NGS User Guidelines for Single Base Real Time GNSS Positioning v2.1Emlid Reach RS3 docs: RTK quickstartDJI Matrice 350 RTK User Manual v1.2Diagrams are FixFinder illustrations. Always follow your equipment's current manual.