mogle1

Thanks Kewaneh for adding the correct link, apparently I can't edit my post after someone has posted after me.....or perhaps I'm just blind and can't see the edit button anymore.....now where did I put my bifocals.....

I remembered reading an excellent post on this subject from last year and found it. Post by DaveD Nad 83-Wgs 84

Go to your local tax assessors office. There you should find the information you need to determine ownership of a particular area. Maps of the area will have parcel numbers associated with individual tracts of land, with these numbers you can look up the owner of the property. One thing to add, if the right of way was just that and not an ownership in fee. The property would have reverted back to the original owner. Here in Tennessee some of the railroad right of ways are just easements.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but with the ability to use the Glonass constellation and the addition of new satellites to the Galileo constellation and a new frequency added to the L1 and L2 that is already available. A site that is not suitable for gps observation today could very well be suitable in a few years.

That's why I am liking the single person robotic survey system. I break it I have to fix it, therefore I am very careful with my all my equipment. When Europe throws some more satelites in the air and that L3 frequency gets added I may go to RTK surveying. My single frequency system is pretty amazing with the accuracy it gets, so I can't wait. Sorry, I fell off subject there.

This brings up a question. I've never seen a partial monument, the've either been there or completely missing. Do they have rebar reinforcement in them? That crewman of your must be pretty stout, the Shonstedts I've seen and used are mighty tough.

The metal detectors used by surveyors are specifically designed to detect magnetic fields. A magnet beside a monument would make the detector "scream", especially at a high setting. The old dip needle used by surveyors to find property corners was a compass in a case with a strap. You turned the compass until the arrow appeared (using a built in mirror) to be pointin up. Then you kept it in that orientation as you passed it over the area that an iron rod (property corner) was supposed to be. If the arrow moved to a downward position you knew you were over the corner and you started digging.. I sure do enjoy the way we do it now. With the dip needle you had to be real close to the actual position of the corner because it took so long to cover a small area, now I can search a 50' circle in no time at all.

One hint I can think of is to go to your local tax assessors office and look at the tax map of that area. Sometimes you can tell the location of the old railroad right of ways from the way the property lines run. They might also have some archived maps that show the right of way. Also you might try the local Farm Service agency they should have old aerial photos of your area. If you could find a photo that pre dates the Gas line it should help a lot.

Sorry to drag up an old thread but I did a search for this very topic wanted to add my 2 cents worth. If I need to find a BM in a certain area for a flood cert or whatever, I come here first to see if a BM has been found in that area. If it has a good description and pictures it makes it that much easier to find it. If I have to spend a lot of time searching it cost the client more money. So I would definately appreciate a good vicinity picture and extra description. A GPS reading would be a nice addition also. @ Artman....If more professionals knew about this site they would use it.

@MLOSER I ddn't mean to say that we should keep things general if we are trying to describe the location of a found monument. Only when we are trying to follow an existing description. I prepare deed descriptions as part of my work and I will literally paint a picture of the property. Not sure where you got the idea that I was taking train direction into account. What I was trying to say was. If you were standing at the crossing and started walking in an easterly direction with the centerline of the tracts for 54' then the monument would have been on the north side of the tract 11' perpendicular to it. Sometimes I know what I am saying but my fingers won't cooperate.

When you read these old descriptions of BM's and even old Property Deeds you need to keep things general. If you have a railroad track that is running anywhere between N45ºE and S45ºE it is considered to be running eastwardly. Therefore any description that reads north of the track, means that if you are traveling in an eastwardly direction, then the BM is on the left side of the tract at a perpendicular direction , not due north of the track. I just love people that want me to run a deed line for them and it says. Beginning at a stone in the road and running in a northwardly direction to the top of the ridge. Hard to load that angle into a surveying instrument. Reading the description of the BM noted above. I would start at the intersection of the road and railroad bed, head east down the rr bed 54', stick my left hand out and walk 11' in that direction and start searching. What I'm trying to say is, don't take these directions literaly, and by all means remember, those folks that wrote these descriptions are human and can make mistakes.

To get your points into Topo4.0 You would first open the gpx file with GSAK, then click on File - Export - StreetAtlasTextFile make sure the file name is what you want. Also check the cache descritpion format box just says %Code then click on generate. Open Topo usa 4.0 with the area that will contain your cache sites showing. Click on Draw - File - Import - find the *.txt file you just made and open it. You should now have a bunch of green flags showing with the PID beside them.

Just started with Groundspeak recently and found the Benchmark forums. Benchmark hunting is something I have to do as part of my job as a Land Surveyor. I'm glad to see that there are people in here that do it for fun. My question, Is it a good idea to give as much info as possible to allow the next person looking for it to find it easier? I know that in logging a find of a geocache you would leave out any descriptions, but a benchmark is something that a surveyor would like to find as quickly as possible. Here is a link to one of my finds today with the description. FB 1942 Is this a good idea or bad? Edit: Did a search in this forum and answered my own question, Y'all seem to like the idea of good descriptions. I think this Benchmark hunting is a great idea. I made a county map using topo usa 4.0. Marked all of the benchmarks downloaded from ngs with little red flags. When I find a new BM I change the color to green and update the location.

My 2cents worth. I have been a land surveyor for almost 30 years now and have used many different kinds of compasses over that period of time ranging from cheap little dime store to suunto to the ones that come in the old K&E mountain transits and some of the older theodolites Brunton, Wild, Dietzgen. I don't think any of them ever pointed exactly the same direction. Of course the upper end theodolites were within less than a minute each other. With the hand held compasses it doesn't take much to throw them off. Overhead powerlines, car parked nearby ( had one 20' away that threw me off 10º), car keys, pocket knife, etc. To get a real good reading you should have nothing metalic on your person and be as far away from large metal objects and power lines.

Are you using the Ipaq with a wireless connection? How is the file making it from GC.com to your Ipaq? I am using wirless on my ipaq. There are several hotspots around town that I can use to connect to the internet with it. Great way to check up on this post during the day. Replying, however is a bit tedious. PROBLEM SOLVED I downloaded and installed the NetFront 3.1 Browser for pocket pc and was able to download a *.gpx file without any problem. Thanks everyone for all your help and suggestions, you're a great bunch.

I did the same search and came up with the IE problem, but I believe it was a desktop running the msn browser. I am in the process of finding an alternate browser for my ipaq Did that with out any luck.....looked at many many web pages. when I dowloaded the *.loc file it came out cache_detail.aspx When I dowloaded the gpx file it came out cache_detail.gpx.aspx I tried changing the file extensions but gpxview would refuse to open it. So it seems that the file is compressed during download but the Pocket IE doesn't uncompress it on recieve.

When I click that file on my desktop I get the gpx file When I click that file on my Ipaq I get an apsx file From reading other posts in this forum I am lead to believe that it may be a problem with the IE that comes with pocket pc 2003. Seeing as how I can download without any problem using my desktop running winXP and IE but not my pocket pc with 2003.

When I download the file from geocach using the checkbox feature all I get is a *.loc file. If I try to use the gpx download all I get is an *.aspx file I am unable to find a way to get a *.gpx without going through the pocket query method.

I have both of those programs on my Desktop Computer and they work great What I am looking for is a similar program that will run on my pocket pc, so that if I download a *.loc file while I am out in town I will be able to convert it to a *.gpx.

When try to download a single waypoint to my ipaq i was getting an aspx file. So I read the forums and used the check box to download it and got an *.loc file. I have no way to view a *.loc file on my pda. I have gpx view installed and can upload gpx file from my pc to the pda but I want to be able to download a gpx directly from the internet to my pda. I have access to many hotspots so I would like to do this without having to email myself the gpx file......Is this possible? Or is there some pocket pc software that will convert the loc to a gpx? Thank you in advance for any help.