Accurate GPS

[w00die]

Hi guys, I am not really a geocacher, but have joined more to seek impartial advice based on field experience. I am a geotechnical engineer, and I am looking for a hand-held gps that is accurate to about +/-0.5m, for recording field observations. Having an on-screen map or satellite image would also be an advantage.

 

Price is secondary.

 

Any suggestions anyone?

 

Cheers, Woodie

[Motorcycle_Mama]

You would need to look at the survey grade GPS units.

 

Trimble and Magellan Pro are two good lines.

[+dakboy]

Consumer-grade GPS, which is what 99.9999% of cachers use, is only accurate to a few meters. To get that kind of accuracy, you're looking at professional/surveyor grade hardware, and it's probably not going to meet a bunch of your other requirements.

Edited March 22, 2009 by dakboy

[+briansnat]

Even the top of the line consumer grade unit won't give you that accuracy.

 

Mapping grade units are the next step up and will give you accuracy down to about 1 meter. These will run you a few thousand dollars. Trimble, Leica Geosystems and Magellan are leaders in the field.

 

You say you're looking for under one meter accuracy and for that you'll need a survey grade grade unit. These can cost many thousands of dollars and hardly can be described as handhelds. Trimble, Sokkia and Magellan all make units in this category, but you will be spending between $5,000 and $30,000.

[+RRLover]

And the additional toils of "post-processing", using a base station with fine tuned coordinates

in the general location of the data collected, and using software to "fine tune" data gathered

in the field. Not terribly time consuming or difficult, but necessary for that level of accuracy.

Post processing software/hardware "should" be included in the expense of the 'high buck'

commercial packages, but may, or may not be included, depending on vendor.

 

Norm

[+macnetz]

... I am looking for a hand-held gps that is accurate to about +/-0.5m, for recording field observations. Having an on-screen map or satellite image would also be an advantage.

Hi Woodie,

 

look here

http://www.topconpositioning.com/products/...ated/grs-1.html

 

hth

Anton

[+Damin69]

Sub meter then you are definitly lookint for a Unit like this. http://www.trimble.com/geoxt.shtml

That is what we use here when we are out doing field work. Great unit if you have thousands of dollars burning a hole in your pocket.