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ddnutzy

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Posts posted by ddnutzy

  1. I have a Maptech program that covers all of N.E. The Va. program has over 800 quads for $99.00. You can print any of the areas that you want with no problem. It has all the detail that you need on a search. These are the same maps that we use on searches for lost people.

  2. Heaven forbid that you really have to do some work to find a benchmark. In most of New England there are no witness posts and a good portion of the stations are in bedrock or outcrops up on moutains, in deep woods covered with years of dirt and mulch. That is what makes it so interesting trying to find them.

  3. Check out the prices at GPS Discount, Inc. The Foretrex 201 is $124.00 plus $7.00 3rd day shipping. It comes with a cable to connect to the computer at that price. I ordered one Sunday and it was shipped Mon. I should get it tomorrow according to Fedex. I have a 60cs and a Garmin gpsV also. This one is for the kayak and biking.

     

    Dave

  4. Yesterday I went BM hunting and took 3 pics of all the marks. It took me forever to log everything in. I only went to the eighth grade, I type slow and I know very little about computers so this is hard on me.

    When I started ironworking a oldtimer gave me some advice. He said survey the situation, analysis it throughly, make a dision, abide by said dision, and keep it simple, stupid.

    Whats wrong with just two pictures, one a closeup and one from five feet or so? As it is now they like what we do without any photos, so why complicate everything with signs and all the infomation that is already on the data sheets.

     

    Dave

  5. rogbarn -

     

    240 is your log count, as holograph said, not the found count.

     

    This is the same kind of count as on NGS.

    Thanks. I just figured it out. I thought he was just going in and getting the benchmark find count from the stats page. Instead, he's going thru all benchmark logs. It makes a big difference. But then, that's the point, isn't it? :(

     

    I wonder if WaldenRun is around. He has the highest finds that I know of that isn't on the list.

     

    As much as I love the numbers, I also totally agree with GH55 concerning the effect that this has on possible careless reporting to the NGS. Nice comment.

    Roger,

    Waldenrun is still alive and kicking. I was with him last Sunday. He has 2142 caches, 834 BM's and 1008 TB's. Not to shabby without a gps for most of them.

    Dave

  6. In the earliest monumentations I could find in Washington State, still extant, the stations began life as drill holes (Triangulation 1854).  The earliest I recall any of the drill holes updated to brass discs out here was 1902 revisits to the drill holes,  1880 era revisits were finds of drill holes and sometimes the drill hole was found to have a stick in it or it was cleaned and repacked with sulfur to aid in finding it again at a future date. 

     

    As to leveling, Most of what is out here on the West Coast would have come after the Brass disc, However Bolts and Rivets or some such item could have been used to signify a leveled location prior to the discs themselves in the East, Prior to disc Monuments.  It is hard to say when the USGS was doing it's leveling  and or when they did that Court House, But writing the USGS about it as it says on every disc may unearth an answer.  Dave D may also have a line on some of the info, and maybe he will see this and look into it if he has time.

     

    To Casey or DaveD, Do you guys have any internal documentation as to when the USCGS began using brass disc style station markers?  My best guess is 1890's or early 1900's from what I have come across, But I have never read anything in the NGS History, so far, as to when exactly the practice was undertaken.  Any thoughts? 

     

    Just to help out with when Leveling became Geodetically important and how the beginning was carried out, Here is a quote from:

     

    http://www.history.noaa.gov/stories_tales/geodetic5.html

     

    Geodetic Leveling, Datums, and Instruments

     

    Geodetic leveling has always played second fiddle to horizontal surveys. Perhaps this is so because leveling is perceived as a simple procedure, although it most certainly is not. Some form of leveling, mostly trigonometric in nature was always observed in order to provide elevations needed to reduce base lines and angle observations to sea level. As a matter of fact, the observations were often carried out as a separate event using specially constructed vertical circle only instruments.

     

    As work on the Transcontinental arc progressed westward it was recognized that vertical angle elevations would not be of sufficient accuracy for the purpose. Accordingly a line of precise levels following the route of the triangulation was begun in 1878 at the Chesapeake Bay and reached San Francisco in 1907.

     

    In 1898, an adjustment was made of the first 25 circuits and a second in 1903 to include the large amount of new data observed in the interim. Partial adjustments were carried out in 1907 and 1912 to include the ever increasing work. In 1929 a general adjustment was made which included 45,000 miles of U.S. first-order leveling and 20,000 miles of similar accuracy Canadian surveys, with sea level planes at 26 tidal stations held fixed. The Canadians had recently published the results of their observations and didn't accept the combined adjustment values. Difference of elevations at common bench marks didn't exceed 0.5 ft. The U.S. data also includes precise leveling observed by the Corps of Engineers, U.S. Geological Survey and other organizations.

     

    By 1940, about 260,000 miles of first- and second-order leveling had been observed. The elevation datum was known as the Sea Level Datum of 1929 (SLD29) until 1973 when the name was changed to the National Geodetic Vertical Datum of 1929 (NGVD29).

     

    Prior to 1899, geodetic leveling in the U.S. was observed using wye levels and target rods. Long telescopes were common to such instruments and critics claimed Americans bought their levels by the yard. In 1899, the Fischer level designed by Ernst G. Fischer of the instrument division, a dumpy type and speaking rods replaced the earlier equipment and were used for almost 70 years with only slight modifications. Invar strips were added to the rods in 1916.

     

    Rob

    Rob,

    MY3686 (Waterbug) is a NGS Benchmark disk documented in 1887. This is the oldest disk that I have found so far.

     

    Dave

  7. While I was going through my stats to log my finds to ngs I listed to old bm's I'd found from the 1800's. Some are pretty interesting. All but 2 were first finds. Four are states oldest The list,

    MZ1504 Hawes Hill 1832 4-6-04

    MZ1702 Mt. Ester 1832 1-4-05

    MY2666 Gumpus 1834 7-13-04

    MY3617 Beaconpole Borden 1834 3-27-05

    MZ1913 Jilson borden 1833 3-31-05

    MZ1700 High Ridge 1837 1-4-05

    MZ2040 Iron Bolt 1862 8-24-04

    MY3836 Mason Barrett 1871 7-10-04

    MY3840 Barrett Mt 1871 1871 7-10-04

    MZ1868 Battlecock 1885 4-11-04

    MZ1646 Mt Warner 1885 11-18-03

    MZ1847 North Warner 1885 11-18-03

    MY3686 Waterbug 1887 4-4-04

    MZ1557 Peaked Mt2 1898 3-11-03

  8. Previously I've been submitting my BM finds to the NGS as an INDIV but today I started using geocac. I just finished posting 63 of my older bm finds. I'll try to get the rest of them submitted before the end of the month.

    Dave (DKA)

  9. Previous to today I'd already found the oldest BM's in Mass. and N.H. I didn't know that the one in Mass was the oldest until this web site came along for which I thank you. Black Dog Tracker turned me on to the oldest in N.H. so I went after that one with success. Today I found the oldest in RI.. The one in Ct. is destroyed so I'll have to get the second oldest there. Thanks for a great site.

    Dave

  10. Today was the 1st hunt since early January because of the snow. I don't mind searching in the snow but I have to travel to find interesting bm's so I don't want to waste to much time. Anyway, I had nine bm's on the list and found them all including the oldest bm in RI. and the reset for same. Both are from the 1800's. I had to pack in for three of them and the rest were near the roadways. Eight were in RI. and the last was in Mass. Like PFF I do a lot of prep work for the search including printing my own maps with the bm's marked on them. I left the house at 7:00 AM, got back at 1:30 and put 108 miles on the speedo. :blink:

  11. This picture is rm 4 for mz1557 (Peaked Mt.2) which was a tough one to find. I have spent a lot of time trying to find mz1556 ( Peaked Mt.) a drillhole that is supposed to be ten ft from mz1557. I now have access to a more powerfull gps that may help me in finding this bm.Picture096.jpg

  12. I have found a few chiseled squares and triangles in my travels but I don't remember what the pids are for all of them. MZ0094 is one, MZ2784 is a drillhole w/triangle and my3693 has a rm with a square, hole and a arrow.Picture210.jpgPicture147.jpg

  13. I use a White's Classic 3 metal detector that is kind of expensive. Without it I wouldn't have found quite a few of the more interesting bm's I've found. Bounty Hunter has a nice one for a little over a hundred dollars that has a discriminating feature that is handy. If you turn it up it does get rid of most of the trash signals. I've found bm's as far down as 18 inches with with my Whites and I think that the Bounty Hunter might be almost as good.

  14. Here is a picture of the tools that I use minius the 15 inch lineup pin that I use as a probe and my food supply since most of the bm's that I look for don't have a McDonalds close by.Picture100.jpg

  15. I just carry a small container of baby powder in my pack to highlight bm's that need it. It is also handy to make a mark or a arc when measuring from one point to another. It's not good in the snow though.

  16. I took pictures of two cairn benchmarks on Mt. Katahdin in Maine last year plus one other cairn at the north end of the knife edge. The cairn bm on Baxter Peak is QG1450 and the cairn bm on South Peak is QG1447. Pamola is just a cairn at the other end of the knife edge. If I can't upload the pics here you'll have to check the pid's.

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