With the increasing number of low-cost GNSS antennas available on the market, there is a lack of comprehensive analysis and intercomparison of their performance. Moreover, multi-GNSS observation noises are not well recognized for low-cost receivers. This study characterizes the quality of GNSS signals acquired by low-cost GNSS receivers equipped with eight types of antennas in terms of signal acquisition, multipath error and receiver noise. The differences between various types of low-cost antennas are non-negligible, with helical antennas underperforming in every respect. Compared with a geodetic-grade station, GPS and Galileo signals acquired by low-cost receivers are typically weaker by 3–9 dB-Hz. While the L1, E1 and E5b signals are well-tracked, only 72% and 86% of L2 signals are acquired for GPS and GLONASS, respectively. The signal noise for pseudoranges varies from 0.12 m for Galileo E5b to over 0.30 m for GLONASS L1 and L2, whereas for carrier-phase observations it oscillates around 1 mm for both GPS and Galileo frequencies, but exceeds 3 mm for both GLONASS frequencies. Antenna phase center offsets (PCOs) vary significantly between frequencies and constellations, and do not agree between two antennas of the same type by up to 25 mm in the vertical component. After a field calibration a of low-cost antenna and consistent application of PCOs, the horizontal and vertical accuracy is improved to a few millimeter and a few centimeter level for the multi-GNSS processing with double-differenced and undifferenced approach, respectively. Last but not least, we demonstrate that PPP-AR is possible also with low-cost GNSS receivers and antennas, and improves the precision and convergence time. The results prove that selection of low-cost antenna for a low-cost GNSS receiver is of great importance in precise positioning applications.

随着市场上低成本 GNSS 天线数量的不断增加，缺乏对其性能的全面分析和比较。此外，低成本接收器无法很好地识别多 GNSS 观测噪声。本研究从信号采集、多径误差和接收机噪声方面表征了配备八种天线的低成本 GNSS 接收机采集的 GNSS 信号质量。各种类型的低成本天线之间的差异是不可忽视的，螺旋天线在各方面都表现不佳。与大地测量级站相比，低成本接收器获取的 GPS 和伽利略信号通常弱 3–9 dB-Hz。虽然 L1、E1 和 E5b 信号得到了很好的跟踪，但 GPS 和 GLONASS 分别仅捕获了 72% 和 86% 的 L2 信号。伪距的信号噪声从 Galileo E5b 的 0.12 m 到 GLONASS L1 和 L2 的 0.30 m 以上不等，而对于载波相位观测，GPS 和 Galileo 频率的信号噪声都在 1 mm 左右振荡，但 GLONASS 频率的信号噪声都超过 3 mm。天线相位中心偏移 (PCO) 在频率和星座之间存在显着差异，并且同一类型的两个天线之间的垂直分量不一致最多 25 毫米。经过低成本天线的现场校准和PCO的一致应用，双差分和无差分方法的多GNSS处理的水平和垂直精度分别提高到几毫米和几厘米级别。最后但并非最不重要的一点是，我们证明 PPP-AR 也可以使用低成本 GNSS 接收器和天线，并提高精度和收敛时间。结果证明，为低成本 GNSS 接收机选择低成本天线对于精确定位应用至关重要。