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My 1st BM submited to NGS


genegene

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Well I finally submitted my first find log to the NGS. Surprisingly it was quite easy and I plan on doing it more now that I am having fun finding the BM's

 

I am going to include my GPS coords in the listing and what kind of GPS it was or is this just over kill?

Is it good form to submit a photo of the mark as well?

 

It said it could take up 30 days to get the info updated and I am looking forward to to seeing my update on the NGS listing.

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Well I finally submitted my first find log to the NGS. Surprisingly it was quite easy and I plan on doing it more now that I am having fun finding the BM's

That's great!

 

I am going to include my GPS coords in the listing and what kind of GPS it was or is this just over kill?

By "what kind of GPS," do you mean brand and model? No, that isn't necessary. Just "HH2" (meaning a consumer-grade GPS receiver) will be fine.

 

Feel free to post your proposed reports here before you file them. We can help spot any problems.

 

Patty

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Also, don't bother to post your HH2 coordinates on a mark with "adjusted" coordinates. You'll see latitude and longitude with numerous digits to the right of the decimal point, like this —

38 41 40.94079(N) 092 15 20.61411(W) ADJUSTED

Your consumer-grade GPS can't come close to the accuracy of high-end equipment used by professionals and mathematically adjusted.

 

Your HH2 coordinates WILL be welcomed for "scaled" coordinates, where the coordinates are given only to full seconds. You'll see something like this near the top of the datasheet —

"38 40 12. (N) 092 06 26. (W) SCALED"

And then, a few lines down —

 

"The horizontal coordinates were scaled from a topographic map and have an estimated accuracy of +/- 6 seconds."

Either way, if an azimuth mark has been set for the station, and you find it, those almost never have any kind of coordinates, so adding HH2 coordinates for an azimuth mark should be helpful.

 

(I say "almost never" since some azimuth marks have their own PIDs, and of course would have some coordinates associated with them.)

 

-ArtMan-

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Adding a note to what Patty wrote: (and duplicatingt ArtMan's post, where he hit SEND before I did)

 

1. When submitting coordinates to NGS, use the Degrees/Minutes/Seconds format. This is different from the Degrees/Minutes format used on Geocaching.com. There are online programs which will do the conversion for you.

 

2. Don't report coordinates to NGS if the data sheet indicates that the horizontal coordinates are ADJUSTED. The ADJUSTED coordinates are far more accurate than we can achieve with our handheld GPS units. However, if the horizontal coordinates are listed as SCALED, this indicates that they are estimates which were calculated from a map. For these benchmarks, it is okay to send in the reading you obtained with your GPS receiver.

 

NOTE: Don't confuse horizontal coordinates with vertical position. Both appear on the data sheet, and benchmarks with SCALED horizontal coordinates often have ADJUSTED vertical positioning. (Hint: SCALED coordinates have no decimal point in the Seconds field),

 

A sample submission to NGS might go like this:

 

HH2 coordinates N35 58 37.5, W078 59 03.2

 

Sending photos to NGS is an entire topic by itself. For the moment, concentrate on the written description and condition. When that is correct, it is better than a photo. However, NGS sometimes picks up photos from geogaching.com and converts them to its photo standard. So take a good close-up of the disk, an area view, and a distant (vicinity) view and post these in your geocaching.com log. You may discover, someday, that your pictures have migrated over to the NGS database someday--especially in those cases where a picture "is worth 1,000 words".

 

Seriously consider Patty's suggestion about posting your proposed NGS upload in this Forum. In addition to our members who are experienced with NGS reporting, we have the several professional surveyors who are willing to pass along advice, as well as actual NGS employees who monitor the Forum and contribute their valuable time to assist us in understanding reporting standards and policies.

 

-Paul-

[Corrected typo]

 

Edited by PFF
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It is helpful in posting pictures to GC to use, as the title, the file name format that NGS wants, in case they harvest them. It should be PID_YEAR_MO_DAY_C.jpg for closeups, or _A for area shot that includes the mark, as

AB1234_20100827_C.jpg

 

I also use _M for middle view if I want to show the setting but with less area than an _A.

 

You can also add a description to the photo listing if you wish, in addition to the title. I figure that using their format in the title will be a tip-off that it came from somebody trying to be serious about the reports.

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A sample submission to NGS might go like this:

 

HH2 coordinates N35 78 37.5, W078 59 03.2

 

If you use a format that is understood by Google Maps, Bing Maps, US National Map, or other service, you can copy and paste the coordinates from your report into the search box and get a reality check that you've entered the coordinates correctly.

 

(I post the coordinates in a slightly different format — 35 78 37.5, -078 59 03.2 — deleting the N and substituting a minus sign for the W, but either way works.)

 

In this case, the errors I got prompted me to look more carefully at the figures Paul entered as an example, which have an obvious mistake. Do you see it?

 

-ArtMan-

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Pauls post reminded me of something. I had written up a tutorial for our local geocachiing club on the differences between scaled, adjusted, and HH2 coordinates on datasheets..........from information gleaned from everyone here.

 

Would ya mind critiquing it for me, especially for technical errors or things that may need a better explanation?

 

I was trying to keep it as simple as possible for the ones just starting off in benchmarking.

 

http://www.nelageo.net/index.php?topic=521.0

 

Thanks so much

Edited by LSUFan
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A sample submission to NGS might go like this:

 

HH2 coordinates N35 78 37.5, W078 59 03.2

 

If you use a format that is understood by Google Maps, Bing Maps, US National Map, or other service, you can copy and paste the coordinates from your report into the search box and get a reality check that you've entered the coordinates correctly.

 

(I post the coordinates in a slightly different format — 35 78 37.5, -078 59 03.2 — deleting the N and substituting a minus sign for the W, but either way works.)

 

In this case, the errors I got prompted me to look more carefully at the figures Paul entered as an example, which have an obvious mistake. Do you see it?

 

-ArtMan-

 

How many minutes in an hour? :blink:

 

John

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