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Silly Me - Pictures of my first Benchmark


USCGCutterman

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Ok, I'm still under 400 geocaches, so I'm still a newbie. I found a benchmark and took pictures but forgot to write down the coordinates. I'm not even sure how to look this thing up online, either here or at NGS. I don't even understand the stamping. It appears to read "VERDES", there's an arrow and it reads "NO 1". It was at the top of San Pedro Hill (zip code 90731) in the LA area. It can only be found by someone with affiliation to state or federal agencies with the clearance and a key to get through a locked gate. Not sure how to proceed... Can I only post pictures if they are online? Or can I post them from my hard drive? Thanks for any help :blink: Oh, and it's definitely NGS. I planned on posting the pics with this post, but it appears the pics need to come from an http:/ address.

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Welcome to the Benchmark Forums! Sounds like you've accessed a reference mark (DY2781) for DY2749 VERDES 1963. I'd be interested in seeing your log of this mark, with your photographs.

 

Many stations were set as part of the "Ring of Steel" Nike Missile System around Los Angeles atop the Palos Verde hills back in the late '50s and early '60s. This location had fire control radar systems nearby. Perched a mile and a half or so west of VERDES is the PALOS VERDES ARIES series of stations (see DY1020 and nearby marks) which appear to be set as horizontal control marks for the Nike Launch Site which once sat atop Point Vicente. The launch site is now the maintenance yard for the city of Rancho Palos Verdes and the administrative site is used as RPV City Hall - an excellent example of 'recycling' obsolete Cold War military installations into parklands. Los Angeles' Fort MacArthur Museum has an excellent webpage about the Nike sites around LA, with maps and links to learn more about this period of Cold War history.

 

Kincaid Park, on the south side of the airport here in Anchorage Alaska, was once a Nike Missile Site too. Today it's a Nordic Ski Park by winter and a beautiful pristine example of what the land looked like pre-European contact by summer - a terrific 1,400 acre trail-laced park for geocaching!

Edited by NorthWes
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USCGCutterman, welcome to benchmarking. Once you get your benchmarking sealegs under you (I just had to say that), you will probably enjoy it more than geocaching.

 

You found a reference mark disk to a triangulation station (my personal favorite kind of benchmarks). NGS Surveyor has posted an excellent tutorial about triangulation stations and everything that goes with them, which is pinned at the very top of the benchmarking forums here on gc.com. You can also click the link below, to help you understand what you found. I bet you will want to go back now and find the station itself that the reference mark points to. Let us know when you do. :lol:

 

http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=185361

 

As far as uploading/posting pics of it. You will need to actually log it on gc.com, using the links that others have provided in the posts above........as you can't upload a pic dirsctly to these forums. Once you log it, you have the option to upload pics (just like geocaching). Once you have uploaded the pics on the gc.com page, you can link back to them, and show them in the forums.....since the pics will now reside on a server.

 

You will get need the url address of the uploaded pic (which you can usually get by rightclicking your mouse over the pic on gc.com, then leftclicking properties)

 

Once you have the url of the pic, then you can use the insert image function, which is a icon of a picture, at the top of the box when you are posting here on the forums.

Edited by LSUFan
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USCGCutterman, welcome to benchmarking. Once you get your benchmarking sealegs under you (I just had to say that), you will probably enjoy it more than geocaching.

 

As far as uploading/posting pics of it. You will need to actually log it on gc.com, using the links that others have provided in the posts above........as you can't upload a pic directly to these forums. Once you log it, you have the option to upload pics (just like geocaching). Once you have uploaded the pics on the gc.com page, you can link back to them, and show them in the forums.....since the pics will now reside on a server.

 

You will get need the url address of the uploaded pic (which you can usually get by rightclicking your mouse over the pic on gc.com, then leftclicking properties)

 

Once you have the url of the pic, then you can use the insert image function, which is a icon of a picture, at the top of the box when you are posting here on the forums.

 

I use the picture hosting site Photobucket that works the same way, you upload an image there, and then copy the link to the picture, and paste it in here. Wherever you want the picture, you click on the little icon that is 2 to the right of the Smily Face in the bold/italic/underline things, and then past in the link to your picture in the box that ensues.

But it's essentially the same as LSUFan was saying, getting your picture onto the internet is biggest thing.

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I've found (or DNF'd) most of the benchmarks in and around the old Nike missile site (DX4800 and DX4802 and others nearby) in the hills above the La Habra - Brea area. Interesting history. My older brother worked on the design of the radar system (for Sylvania in those days). The current usage (or at least a couple years ago) was almost played-out oil fields and cattle grazing. Note the radar mounts behind the nice long-horn and calf.

8d937e20-29fa-4e91-96b5-fa8400e92161.jpg

Edited by Klemmer & TeddyBearMama
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Thank you all so VERY much for your responses! I'm not sure why I didn't get a notification of your responses, since I am 'watching' this topic. I figured I would have gotten an e-mail or something. Another fellow Coastie saw my post and sent me a direct e-mail. That's the only reason I knew you all responded! Thank you all for the warm welcome. This sounds like a very cool community. Looking forward to finding more benchmarks! I'll post pics and do my GC log after I have dinner. In Reno this weekend for some R&R. :lol:

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Thanks again for the responses. I think I might have been the first one to 'find' this, as there was nothing previously logged. I'm attaching some pics and also, hopefully, the link to my log on GC.

 

Good deal, it looks like you got the posting pics part down pat. I am wanting to read your future log on the main triangulation station (Verdes DY2749) if you get time to go back.

 

What's fun now with this type of station, is to use the box score information provided on the datasheet for DY2749. You can go back to the gc.com page for the reference mark you found and logged. You can find and click on the nearest benchmarks link (which is with the nearest geocaches link). You will see several other benchmarks within 0 miles of your reference mark. Select the DY2749 Verdes one. Now, once it pulls up, select the "view original datasheet' which is near the top and to the right of the location for the mark.

 

Now that you are looking at the NGS datasheet for Verdes (which by the way, this datasheet is going to be from around the year 2000, which is when gc.com loaded its database with the datasheets. It won't reflect any recoveries since then. You will need to get a current datsheet to see if there have been actual recoveries reported to the NGS since 2000.....but it is more than enough for our purposes)

 

Now scroll down on the datasheet until you basically see an outlined box of information that will show the PID's, reference object name, distance, and compass directions.

 

You will now see that the reference mark 1 you found is 10.941 meters at a compass direction of 153 degrees 32 min away from the station of Verdes. Since you know where the reference mark 1 is, you can do a reverse bearing from it to find the station. Just add 180 degrees to the compass direction. You can set your compass to 333 degrees 32 min or basically 333.5......then measure off 10.941 meters from reference mark 1 and you should be at the station DY2749 Verdes.

 

BTW, if the reference mark 1 disk is correctly oriented, the arrow on it should be pointing to the station of Verdes.

 

As you can tell, a good compass and tape measure will need to be added to your benchmarking bag. You can pick up a 100 meter tape roll at Harbor Freight for around $10. This tape has metric measurements on one side, and standard on the other. You will learn that some measurements will be in feet, while others are in meters...so it's good to have a dual sided tape to use for either.

 

We're going to get you addicted as the rest of us are. LOL

Edited by LSUFan
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As suggested here, I went down to the Harbor Freight in my town, and bought a 100' tape roll with a pointer thing for 4.99, model 36818.

 

I have that smaller one too. However, they also sell a 100 meter ( I think 330 feet) model...which you will find easier to use in some situations where you have to measure longer distances, like measuring off of road centers. It doesn't hurt to have both tapes in your bag.

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The specification for setting Reference Marks was that they be within 30 meters of the station mark. Since the standard tape was 30 meters long, this allowed the distances to the RMs to be measured within one tape length.

 

GeorgeL

NGS

 

Sometimes though, the crew forgot to read the memo: :lol:

 

All the RM's on this one are over 30 meters. Check out the distance on RM 2 (we did find it though) of 280 meters from the station

 

http://www.ngs.noaa.gov/cgi-bin/ds_mark.prl?PidBox=CQ2664

Edited by LSUFan
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As suggested here, I went down to the Harbor Freight in my town, and bought a 100' tape roll with a pointer thing for 4.99, model 36818.

 

I have that smaller one too. However, they also sell a 100 meter ( I think 330 feet) model...which you will find easier to use in some situations where you have to measure longer distances, like measuring off of road centers. It doesn't hurt to have both tapes in your bag.

 

I saw that one, but decided to take the cheaper way out. I hope I don't regret that later.

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I bought the Harbor Freight 100 meter model so I could measure longer distances (and directly in meters when I was stuck using only the box score) and the cheap plastic loop snapped the first time I used it. I now have a large nail stuck through the end of the tape. It means my measurements are off by about 1 1/2 inches but in most cases it is enough to get me to the RM. I have a better (not great, but about $15 from Home Depot or Lowe's) 100' tape that I generally keep with me, and the 100 m tape stays in the car. This means that I usually need the longer tape after climbing to the top of some mountain and of course it is in the back seat of the car.

The caveat is that you get what you pay for. It makes a great backup tape and is good for meter measurements, but since I don't want to use it as my primary tape I never seem to have it when I need it.

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