5Wishes

Confirmed. I guess I was a little 'FG' happy. Almost all of the PID's in my area begin with an FG prefix. My mistake.

You are right - the disk that you will find when you get to the mosaic of the State of Arknasas is a USGS disk that is not in the NGS database. We just got back from Mt. Magazine this weekend, and it was a disappointment to find that what I thought I had found really wasn't what I thought it was. I didn't have any datasheets with me, but I knew there was a logable benchmark at the summitt. Unfortunately, I found the wrong one. We'll be back up there this summer, I'm sure. I'll get it then. There are a couple more stations up on the top of the mountain. Be sure to grab those while you are there.

In a recent post in the Benchmark Hunting forum, I came across this image in a collection of survey photos. I probably wont be making too many judgement calls when it comes to reporting a station as gps observable, but is this image representative of what you would expect to use to determine whether or not the station would be considered suitable for gps observation?

See the post here... Pocket Queries for Benchmarks California Bear - Thanks for the tip about editing the file for BMGPX. I'm sure it will come in handy. I wish I knew that last weekend. I can then take the gpx file and push it thru GPX2HTML and Plucker to get that list into my gps/pda.

Actually, Cheryl didn't mention anything about requiring the designation or the state when I submitted these. Here is her response: Thanks for your submission of county corrections to our database. I have researched all of the points that you have submitted for correction. All of the PIDs you submitted indeed had the incorrect county listed. There was one PID, FG0944, which was incorrectly listed in Franklin County but the correct county for that PID is Madison County instead of Crawford County. The location of PID FG0944 is NNE of the convergence of Franklin, Madison and Crawford Counties in or near Ozark National Forest. I will submit these corrections for updating and get back to you when they have been corrected. Thanks for your help. Happy Hunting!!! Cheryl I'll try to be a little more specific with her in the future, but I don't think she had much problem without it. It's kindof cool to know that our efforts are appreciated by NGS.

Here are several more that need to be changed. I will send these to Cheryl as well. PID Correct County Franklin County FG1372 Madison County FG0944 Crawford County Crawford County FH0807 Sebastian County FH0216 Sebastian County FG1928 Franklin County Yell County FG1883 Logan County EJ1489 Montgomery County Pope County FG0885 Johnson County FG0884 Johnson County FG0883 Johnson County FG0881 Johnson County FG0879 Johnson County FG0878 Johnson County FG0876 Johnson County FG0935 Johnson County FG0867 Johnson County FG0952 Johnson County FG0950 Johnson County FG0868 Johnson County FG0869 Johnson County FG0870 Johnson County FG0871 Johnson County FG0872 Johnson County FG0873 Johnson County FG0935 Johnson County FG0933 Johnson County FG0931 Johnson County FG0930 Johnson County FG0891 Johnson County FG0892 Johnson County FG0894 Johnson County FG0895 Johnson County FG0896 Johnson County FG0897 Johnson County FG0900 Johnson County FG0901 Johnson County FG0903 Johnson County FG0905 Johnson County FG0906 Johnson County FG0907 Johnson County FG1005 Johnson County

Take a look at this topo map. The mark circled in red shows the name of the mark, or its designation with NGS. See the datasheet here. The term 'neance' refers to the designation of the station that they used for the legend. Usually the designations used for the triangulation stations can be anything from a town name, to a landowner name, or from anything that the survey crew decided to call it. There are several strange names in use out there.

Note that there is a difference between coordinates that are listed as SCALED and those that are ADJUSTED. ADJUSTED coordinates are usually found on triangulation disks that are used for horizontal control. The ADJUSTED marks can be accurately found with a handheld GPS. SCALED coordinates are found on benchmarks that are used for vertical control. The best way to find the SCALED marks is to use your GPS to get close (within the 300 feet) and then use the description provided on the datasheets to find the actual mark.

rogbarn - here are some stations from the Pope County, Ark. file that need to be changed... PID Correct County FG1119 Yell County FG1121 Yell County FG1750 Conway County FG1751 Conway County FG1746 Conway County FG1747 Conway County FG0671 Van Buren County FG0672 Van Buren County I will send these to Cheryl Malone as well.

You can also view the GPX file by opening it in USAPhotoMaps. This is a cool piece of software that you can use to view the coordinates on both topo maps and aerial photos. Works great if your GPSr does not have built-in mapping capability. You can download it at www.jdmcox.com. Also, if you want to use your GPS, look for marks that have ADJUSTED coordinates. SCALED coordinates are not as accurate and can be off by as much as 300' or more. I hope you enjoy your first benchmark hunts. I find they are more enjoyable than caching, simply because you are looking for something that may or may not still be there after so many years.

I think the idea of getting more involvement from NGS is great. Up to this point, we have had some good responses from DaveD when he decides to post to the group, and those have always been helpful. I welcome Casey's ideas for an outreach from NGS to our benchmarking group, and I would be willing to participate. However I agree with the points made by Black Dog Trackers, Kaweneh and Bill93. Maybe a committment from NGS to participate and to use this forum as a place to distribute relevant information would be sufficient. Some good contact e-mail and quick responses from NGS would be good too. Either way, I will still participate in hunting marks and submitting recovery information when it appears it would benefit NGS. I look forward to seeing how things develop. edit: spelling

I guess I'm missing the point of having the second forum. Why would we have to worry about someone on here being intimidated from participating simply because of the content of the forum? It seems as though some of us would like to have a second forum so that they can be part of a more 'elite' group? Surely the folks from NGS would be able to determine by the topic of the post whether or not it needs their attention. If someone gets off topic, maybe they should create a new post. I have logged over 100 marks and have submitted several to NGS. There are many of us that have done much less and just as many that have logged more. There are many here that hunt in a variety of ways and to different degrees of technicality. However, all of the information and posts here are beneficial to all of us, regardless of our experience. I think things would be more simple if they were simply left alone. A second forum would simply be one more place for us to have to go to read the posts.

Here's a great article about getting your benchmark files from NGS and putting them into a handheld pda. Data Planning for Benchmark Hunting You can also use ClayJar's Watcher (http://www.clayjar.com/) to sort the GPX file by date. That way you can find the oldest benchmarks in your area. When hunting benchmarks, it is best to use your GPSr to get 'close' to the mark and then rely on the written description to actually find the mark. Edit: fixed URL

Try this link for a great tutorial on how to get the datasheet information to your PDA. Data Planning for Benchmarks

Who do we contact to get one of those?

Here's one I found that was like that - Looks like someone was simply putting their initials on the mark! Kevin

I find it easy to send the waypoints from my GPS to USAPhotoMaps software. Then I can print out a map with the waypoints, identify the ones I want to go looking for, get their datasheets and head out the door... pretty neat piece of software. Check it out at www.jdmcox.com.