VKLink GPS
Agricultural NTRIP RTK corrections, field data tools, modems, farm reference points and practical receiver support.
gps.vklink.com.au
Australian field engineering
About VKLink GPS
Precision agriculture corrections and hardware built by someone who works on the machinery that uses them.
What VKLink is
VKLink is the umbrella name for three Australian technical projects created around practical communication, machinery and field-service problems.
VKLink Amateur Radio
The original Australian repeater linking project, joining physical analogue radio equipment over the internet.
amateur.vklink.com.auCrappy Auto Electrical and AirCon
A private technical knowledge and collaboration service for automotive electrical and air-conditioning professionals.
crappyae.orgBuilt in regional Australia
VKLink GPS was created by Matt Bilston after repeatedly seeing correction services and agricultural receivers fail each other in the paddock. Survey-grade data is not automatically agriculture-friendly data. Older receivers can be overloaded by messages they cannot use, while farmers are often left between a software provider, a machinery dealer and a communications provider when something stops working.
VKLink brings those disciplines together. The correction network, caster, stream converters, customer tools and field hardware are developed as one system and tested against real agricultural receivers.
Experience behind the system
Matt's background crosses the boundaries that normally separate agricultural machinery, electronics and software:
- More than 25 years in radio communications and automotive electrical work.
- More than 15 years specialising in agricultural auto electrical systems.
- Practical experience installing, diagnosing and repairing agricultural GPS and guidance equipment.
- Software and embedded development across C, PHP, C#, assembler and microcontroller platforms.
- Custom hardware for vehicle CAN systems, remote monitoring, control systems and rural communications.
The original VKLink project
VKLink began more than 15 years ago as a collaboration between amateur radio operators in Victoria and Tasmania. The name described the job: linking VK, Australia's amateur radio callsign prefix. At its peak the network connected around 100 nodes, and it continues to link legacy radio equipment across several states.
The GPS network follows the same engineering principle: connect useful physical infrastructure over the internet, remove unnecessary complexity, and make older equipment work alongside newer systems.
How VKLink develops products
VKLink combines proven open-source foundations with custom software, electronics and field testing. Components are retained when they work, rewritten when they do not, and tested harder than normal customer use before being trusted in the paddock.
The result is not a generic correction feed with a new label. VKLink actively selects healthy reference stations, reshapes correction streams for agricultural receivers, supports Australian datums and provides the diagnostic information needed to help a farmer when the green light disappears.