LSUFan

The azimuth mark can make it tough on a lot of the triangulation stations. You could make this challenge helpful, by requiring at least one of the finds be on a mark that has a previous 'not found' recovery report.

Sometimes though, the crew forgot to read the memo: All the RM's on this one are over 30 meters. Check out the distance on RM 2 (we did find it though) of 280 meters from the station http://www.ngs.noaa.gov/cgi-bin/ds_mark.prl?PidBox=CQ2664

I have that smaller one too. However, they also sell a 100 meter ( I think 330 feet) model...which you will find easier to use in some situations where you have to measure longer distances, like measuring off of road centers. It doesn't hurt to have both tapes in your bag.

Good deal, it looks like you got the posting pics part down pat. I am wanting to read your future log on the main triangulation station (Verdes DY2749) if you get time to go back. What's fun now with this type of station, is to use the box score information provided on the datasheet for DY2749. You can go back to the gc.com page for the reference mark you found and logged. You can find and click on the nearest benchmarks link (which is with the nearest geocaches link). You will see several other benchmarks within 0 miles of your reference mark. Select the DY2749 Verdes one. Now, once it pulls up, select the "view original datasheet' which is near the top and to the right of the location for the mark. Now that you are looking at the NGS datasheet for Verdes (which by the way, this datasheet is going to be from around the year 2000, which is when gc.com loaded its database with the datasheets. It won't reflect any recoveries since then. You will need to get a current datsheet to see if there have been actual recoveries reported to the NGS since 2000.....but it is more than enough for our purposes) Now scroll down on the datasheet until you basically see an outlined box of information that will show the PID's, reference object name, distance, and compass directions. You will now see that the reference mark 1 you found is 10.941 meters at a compass direction of 153 degrees 32 min away from the station of Verdes. Since you know where the reference mark 1 is, you can do a reverse bearing from it to find the station. Just add 180 degrees to the compass direction. You can set your compass to 333 degrees 32 min or basically 333.5......then measure off 10.941 meters from reference mark 1 and you should be at the station DY2749 Verdes. BTW, if the reference mark 1 disk is correctly oriented, the arrow on it should be pointing to the station of Verdes. As you can tell, a good compass and tape measure will need to be added to your benchmarking bag. You can pick up a 100 meter tape roll at Harbor Freight for around $10. This tape has metric measurements on one side, and standard on the other. You will learn that some measurements will be in feet, while others are in meters...so it's good to have a dual sided tape to use for either. We're going to get you addicted as the rest of us are. LOL

Duke, That stands for the National Geodetic Vertical Datum......and in simple terms concerns the height (or elevation) of the benchmark in relation to an established point (which was sea level). You may find the answers to a lot of this here: http://www.ngs.noaa.gov/faq.shtml and here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benchmark_%28surveying%29

USCGCutterman, welcome to benchmarking. Once you get your benchmarking sealegs under you (I just had to say that), you will probably enjoy it more than geocaching. You found a reference mark disk to a triangulation station (my personal favorite kind of benchmarks). NGS Surveyor has posted an excellent tutorial about triangulation stations and everything that goes with them, which is pinned at the very top of the benchmarking forums here on gc.com. You can also click the link below, to help you understand what you found. I bet you will want to go back now and find the station itself that the reference mark points to. Let us know when you do. http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=185361 As far as uploading/posting pics of it. You will need to actually log it on gc.com, using the links that others have provided in the posts above........as you can't upload a pic dirsctly to these forums. Once you log it, you have the option to upload pics (just like geocaching). Once you have uploaded the pics on the gc.com page, you can link back to them, and show them in the forums.....since the pics will now reside on a server. You will get need the url address of the uploaded pic (which you can usually get by rightclicking your mouse over the pic on gc.com, then leftclicking properties) Once you have the url of the pic, then you can use the insert image function, which is a icon of a picture, at the top of the box when you are posting here on the forums.

I really want this one. Uhhh Duke, you may want to do a little searching in the benchmark forums about "buying" NGS survey disks. You can enter the search term of "ebay" in the search box, and restrict your search to the benchmark forums, to read about it.

Great detective work there. It does seem to fit the bill.

That's the main man, himself. I am listening to him on the television right now as I type this.

Looks like a bench mark disk to me. Does somebody have it for sale? kayakbird I agree with Kayakbird. Judging from the designation, it appears to be from a level line somewhere.

Paul, here is a partial tutorial I have written up in our local geocaching forum about loading all of a state's benchmarks into your Nuvi for paperless geocaching. I tried to write it for our members just getting started. You are probably familiar with most of the steps and can bypass a lot of it. It's not all the way complete, but I did finish enough of it, to show you what you need to change, to adapt it over for benchmarking purposes. I tried to highlight a few things in the tutorial of where i changed the gsak macro process from geocaching to benchmarking....along with a few things to look out for. Hope it is where everyone can understand it. I'll try to finish it in the next day or so. There are probably easier/better ways to accomplish this. I am just posting how I did it for myself. Maybe the professionals will post their expertise. DISCLAIMER: I can't be held personally liable for anyone who is late for work, weddings, or dinner.....due to stopping to look for benchmarks when your proximity alert goes off on your NUVI. http://www.nelageo.net/index.php?option=com_kunena&func=view&catid=13&id=12706&Itemid=54#12714

How many points can you add to a Nuvi? I use the NUVI POI DOWNLOADER, but have never tried loading more than 40 points for a project. More would be better--especially with the "alert" feature. Also, clue me in about the datasheets. I had no idea that this might be possible! (I use an older model Nuvi 250.) -Paul- Paul, using an sd card, it's really unlimited to how many poi's you can put on the nuvi. I think you can put 10's of thousands (if not 100's) just in the internal memory alone. I think all of the datasheets for AR, LA, and MS use around 150mb on the sd card when converted over to poi's. And that is the entire datasheets loaded in your nuvi, so you can go paperless. Here is where you can learn about doing it for geocaches. I modified a few things to make it work for benchmarking (like changing the geocache icon to a benchmark one) http://geocaching.totaltechworld.com/index.html There are also some things you need to know on which stage of the process you need to change the names of the generated files at, so you can separate your poi's by state. Every time you run the gsak macro, you will get a poi file of the same name, which renaming it doesn't separate them. I have to get some year end stuff out today at my business (like w2's). I will type up a complete tutorial on using the above link for benchmarking purposes this evening and post it

Another easy way, is if you use GSAK and have made a gpx file of an entire states datasheets. You can load this gpx file into gsak and use the search feature of GSAK to find it by designation. I only thought I liked GSAK, until I started using it to filter stuff for benchmarks........like by oldest ones placed, etc. Now I use GSAK all the time.

Duke, if you know which state the mark is located in, you can do a search by station name/designation (which should be the stamping on it) from the link below: http://www.ngs.noaa.gov/cgi-bin/ds_desig.prl I have found when searching this way, that it's best to put just key words/numbers in the search box. Trying to use the exact stampings sometimes won't get you the result you are looking for. Here is an excerpt from the NGS concerning searching by designation: NGS Station Names ----------------------------------------------------------------- The National Geodetic Survey stores the designation (name) of survey marks in their database in accordance with Annex D of the NGS "Bluebook", which is available at: http://www.ngs.noaa.gov/FGCS/BlueBook/ In brief, before loading a designation in the database the designation is edited to... 1. Remove year 2. Remove agency code 3. Remove some special characters 4. Insert blank between Alpha and Numeric characters. 5. Remove 'BM' from the front of the name. Can't find your station ??? --------------------------- If your topo map shows a mark called 'BM K155' Try entering K 155 for your search

I am guilty of that. I have even went so far as loading every benchmark in the states of LA, AR, and MS into my garmin nuvi as poi's (using the gsak macro and also have the complete datasheet in the nuvi also). If I come within 500 feet of one while driving, I get an alert and pop-up on the screen. My wife hates it, cause I am constantly looking to stop and see if it is there.

Harry, I know exactly where you are coming from. I saw a picture in the newspaper of a vehicle wreck on a local interstate overpass. I knew there was a benchmark there set in the roadway, and was trying to see if I could make it out in the pic. If you end up going to a doctor to get professional help for our affliction, let me know what meds he prescribes.

Ya are killing me, this is too funny.

Now that's funny. ROFLMBO When you find out how much it costs, I'll go in halves with you.

So far, I've yet to find a benchmark under a lamp post skirt........but ya'll will be the first (ok, second) to know if I do. Oh yeah, benchmarks can be on active bridges, schools, airports, on or near train stations/tracks where geocaches can't. It's also fairly rare to see a geocache with a sign telling you that it's nearby.

I believe TillaMurphs is just being witty.

AlteredStar, you might get more responses if you asked this question in the "GPS and Technology" forum.

I see where a few (but not all) of my recovery reports from January 1 of this year have been updated on the NGS site. I guess I need to get the rest of them logged.

Thanks guys. I didn't even pay attention to the cut off anchors, where something used to be. It makes sense. (slaps forehead)

Howdy again everyone..... long time listener, first time caller. We ran across another peculiarity that hopefully someone understands the reasoning behind. We recovered several disk resets that were reset in 1983 in bridge abutments. The thing is, it appears that the 1966 USCGS disks that the 1983 NGS resets were 'replaced' for, are just a few feet from them........at least looking at the numbering scheme for them. However, there isn't an active datasheet for the 1966 original disks. Why would they place resets, just a few feet from the originals? I figured if they didn't have all the data for the 1966 originals, it would have still been easier to occupy them, instead of going to the trouble of installing new disks. Maybe because it was a different monumenting agency perhaps? It could also be that you they are too close to the guardrail posts (the pics are deceiving somewhat, as you can get directly over the disks as you can see from my pics on the gc.com logs), but I don't know when the rail posts were placed. I'm just guessing, but am real curious to the actual reasons. Here are the links and pics to the 3 in a row we found. CP2412 CP2413 CP2414 Thanks

Thanks for the help, everyone. I am a little better educated thanks to you.