My visit.. (*LONG*)

[foxtrot_xray]

So not that many here know, but I was let go from my job about a month ago (no, not the railroad, the 'real bill-paying' job). I had an interview last week up in Silver Spring, MD, just outside of Washington DC. I drove up due to an abundance of time on my hands. When I left home, I did not bring any of my hunting tools; heck, I didn't even bring my camera. Benchmarking was last on my list of things for that trip.

 

This is the story of the benchmarking side of the trip. Most of you all post stories about how you found these obscure links in data to find that station that hasn't been recovered since 1756. I post stories about .. er.. none of that.

 

(As an aside, the interview went really well, in fact I have a job offer. So cheers from that. )

 

Two days after the interview - a day BEFORE leaving, I was walking to the Metro station, and pass a huge building with "NOAA" on the front. Ho-ly shyt. No way! On a whim, I turn and walk in. There's a full securit deal, with people walking by and showing badges and getting x-ray'd and all the fun stuff. I walk up to the desk and ask if Dave Doyle is in. She looks at me funny (probably because it was raining out, and I had no umbrella) and calls him. Thirty minutes later - after signing my first-born over to the security lady at the front desk - I'm at Dave's desk, and learning quite a lot. Especially about what he does. Heck.. all he does is surf Geocaching.com for BM pictures! Seriously, tho, it was a fantastic morning, talking to him and seeing the place. (Funny, a few days later, at home, I found there's a station on his roof. O-well. Guess I have to go back! Besides, the previous logger didn't actually GET to the station. Pfft.)

 

He even showed me a completely new database of stations to find, OPUS! If I understand it correctly (which is always under debate), OPUS allows ordinary surveyors to use CORS and essentially submit their own marks. They'll set up on a station, which could be anything from a county station to a piece of trash, and get readings on it. Then they'll submit their logs and data to NGS and NGS will publish the mark. Essentially now, instead of having passive marks set by the NGS and such, these marks will and can be anything. You'll notice that the 'datasheets' are new as well (and semi-remind me of the french ones that someone years ago linked to at one point). For example, if you look at the only one submitted for Georgia at this time, it has pictures as well as a Google Map image of the location. Pretty sweet! At the moment, there's no way to submit recoveries for stations, however. (And, as an aside, you can bet that my next version of NGS»GPX will be able to 'read' these pages and spit out a GPX file for GSAK or GPSes. )

 

Now, before leaving and letting him get back to surfing the net, he let slip about a little place down in Corbin, VA - the "Fredericksburg Geomagnetic Center". If you're bored, go pull up my KML in Google Earth or scardycat's Google Maps viewer and pull up Corbin - look about .8 mile to the east, you'll see it. It has probably the highest concentration of stations, period. Since I was driving home on a Saturday, Dave didn't think anyone would be there. Since it's not far from the interstate, I decided to stop by - I mean, if there was noone there, it wouldn't put me far behind.

 

Unfortunately for my trip, there was someone there. The facility's chief was there (awaiting new carpet for their main building) and ended up showing me around. First, two pictures of this gentleman's station collection:

First set of saved markers.

Second set of saved markers. I didn't get a show of the third set.

A very rare WW2-era station. Cast iron. (I believe. My mamory's a little fuzzy here.)

Outside, a dedication marker for 50 years of service of the Geomagnetic center. Hard to see in the smaller photo, but this is a triangulation station!

 

So, after that I went outside to try and find the multitude of stations that is supposedly here. Now, I WANT you to laugh at me. Of all the stations there, I think I found.. ah.. 5? or 8? Pretty friggin' sad. The problem is that there's dummy marks everywhere! For example, there's *8* "TEST" stations - rods - that aren't real stations, they're just.. tests. So you find a lot of stuff, yes. Just not all official stations. According to Dave, they test antennas and other equipment here, and I happened to come across the landing pad for the space shuttle:

And, heck - even the wildlife is into geodetic control! This little birdhouse was near the antennas, and while it's not too evident in the pictures, the roof of the house is made of two witness post signs.

Supposedly there's a continental traverse station on the property, but due to the heavy rains and my lack of preparation (again, remember, I hadn't PLANNED on this being a hunting trip!) I didn't find it. However, I did find a few interesting ones. I KNOW they're published stations, I just don't know WHICH ONES :

Two of these, with obvious points in front of a black aluminum plate. There's a couple datasheets that describe stations like this, but the directions in the "to-reach" are wrong, so I'm not 100% sure.

This one was far in the back, sitting all alone.

This one was up front, I kinda like the rod arrangement on this one.

 

Here's a neat one I found, ASTRO WEST PIER:

The punch mark. Kinda hard to see, but it's there. Unimpressive, I know.

 

[continued...]

Edited June 13, 2009 by foxtrot_xray

[foxtrot_xray]

[ ..huh.. you can only have 10 IMG links in a single post. Go figure. I needed 11. ]

 

So, the punch mark's unimpressive.. how's THIS:

So, here we have almost everything. The large white stand in the center-left of the image is Astro West Pier. An old antenna stand is in the front-center-right, two more antennas in the rear-right (also pictured above), in the FAR rear right are two-more ground-mounted antennas. In the rear left, just ABOVE the roof-line, you'll see the side of the birdhouse.

 

But, I ramble. In short, a trip that I hadn't even planned on looking for a mark turned into the most rewarding, educational, and fun BM hunting trip ever. I want to give a big thanks to Dave Doyle, for waiting for me to get thru security and showing me some neat stuffs, and Kendall Fancher for letting me roam around US Gov't property trying to look like I know what I'm doing, and showing me his darn neat collection of markers. (Oh, and Dave showed me one of his ceramic markers - er, not really a marker. I forgot what it would be called, honestly..), hidden up on his desk. )

 

I've tossed an idea Dave's way, and perhaps something will come of it, especially if I end up moving up there. But Geocachers have their little events, I pinged Dave on the possibility of having a Benchmarker's event here. There's plenty enough to learn and see to last a weekend, especially for us geeks. We'll see what comes of it.

Edited June 13, 2009 by foxtrot_xray

[+t8r]

Awesome story.

If you were trying to make someone jealous, it worked.

If you weren't trying to make someone jealous, it worked.

Thanks

john

[Wintertime]

Love the birdhouse with its own survey mark!

 

And congratulations on the job offer!

 

If we can get you interested in another hobby, the Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT) is located in Silver Spring...

 

Patty

Edited June 18, 2009 by Wintertime

[foxtrot_xray]

Love the birdhouse with its own survey mark!

 

And congratulations on the job offer!

 

If we can get you interested in another hobby, the Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT) is located in Silver Spring...

 

Patty

 

Thanks guys. My intention was not to cause jealousy. I honestly has not planned for this - I ended up in my driving shoes (which offer the same protection as flip-flops) walking around foot-high grass and water-saturated ground. Honestly, my feet were wet until I got home 10 hours later.

 

On the way home I had thought about having some kinda 'Benchmakrer's Gathering' there sometime, like the numerous Cache events there are out there. I tossed the idea to David D, hopefully something can be thrown together. If I take the offer (will make my mind this coming Monday after I hear from other interviews here) and end up up there, I'll be able to put a lot of time into it, too.

[+shorbird]

You certainly had a trip to remember! Very interesting story, and loved your pictures!! Thanks for sharing.