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Not Found?


W4REZ

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I don't post much but I feel today's hunting is worth a small bit of gloating.

 

Of the 15 benchmarks I logged today, three were previously logged "NOT FOUND," including one that was logged not found by the NGS!

 

I wish my digital camera wasn't so stupid. It's very sensitive to humidity, and with this being coastal North Carolina during the rainy season, it refuses to work at all outdoors most of the time, so I quit even bothering with pictures.

 

On a different note, when you guys go on a hunting run, how long do you usually stay out? I tend to make a day out of it when I do it.

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Good job!

 

To answer your question, I generally am out about four hours at a time, due to being "on call" in real estate. I'd love to make it a whole day, sometime, just to see how many I could find.

 

I lay out a route in advance, and the number found depends upon how many difficult ones I encounter and how much research I have to do, including how many photos I take. I also spend time with the measuring tape when the original references are missing and I am creating new ones.

 

When I'm documenting destroyed stations, it is very slow. I try to play "detective" and find out what happened, and when.

 

Paul K5PF

Wake County, NC

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Congratulations, good job. The only thing I would suggest would be to give more details in your log. Which landmarks are still valid, measurements to new objects if that would help. Noting the change in depth was very useful.

 

I also try to remember to give an assessment of whether the sky visibilitymeets NGS standard, which I think is "clear from 15 degrees above the horizon in all directions, with perhaps a few small exceptions for distant objects". I tend to be slightly generous on the theory it is better for a potential user to drive by and reject my assessment than to not check out one they needed and could have used.

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All the Myriad ways.

 

The North Carolina Geodetic Survey. Interesting. In my spare time I will have to look into states that had their own programs. It makes sense to know these things when you are trying to plan for the development of infrastructure, and you don't want to wait for the Feds. At the same time though one wonders why a State is dabbling in geodetic observation in 1975. Most states and counties had Civil Engineering works by then so the Geodetic aspect seems well, interesting. And then a DNF by the US Geological Survey to the NGS Database...

 

I know the US Air Force Had a Geodetic Survey Squadron started in Florida and later stationed at F.E Warren AFB in Wyoming. They undertook the Geodetic mapping of some particulaly not so comfortable places in the world, some under combat conditions. It was some years later disbanded and the Defense Mapping Agency took over the work... Sattelite work you know. For a "More Accurate" bombing...

 

It is interesting to see all the inter-agency recoveries. More interesting to see how the study of geodesy affects most aspects of life, while most people have never even heard the word.

 

File this post under taken for granted.

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The reason I'll be phoning is the CONTACT US button on the site does not work. [sigh]

 

For now, I am reporting finds directly to NGS.

 

One feature of the NCGS site is a downloadable map for each county, showing the station locations. However, I find this of limited use. It is more practical to use geocaching.com and use the convenient buttons for various mapping programs.

 

Paul

 

[sorry about the detached post. My fingers must have hit a wrong key. The message got sent prematurely.]

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Paul,

 

Here in Washington, they do keep track of geodetics in a state agency, even some counties to a degree, but they just don't call it a 'Geodetic Survey' Agency. I am sure it is a State agency involved with civil control. Maps, Websites, the whole deal. More data than you can read without having to leave the desk for ages... They all seem to have that...

 

I have enough on my plate, I'll stick with the NGS. It would appear the states default to their data anyhow.

 

Rob

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The North Carolina Geodetic Survey.  Interesting.  In my spare time I will have to look into states that had their own programs.  It makes sense to know these things when you are trying to plan for the development of infrastructure, and you don't want to wait for the Feds.  At the same time though one wonders why a State is dabbling in geodetic observation in 1975.  Most  states and counties had Civil Engineering works by then so the Geodetic aspect seems well, interesting.  And then a DNF by the US Geological Survey to the NGS Database...

Apparently they take it pretty seriously too, judging from their web site. Could it be because of the coastline?

 

The vast majority of the benchmarks I've recovered from the NGS database have originally been set by the NCGS and are stamped as such. Furthermore it appears they are still actively setting benchmarks. I recovered one yesterday (not in the NGS database) that was dated 2000.

 

All this makes for a very large selection of benchmarks to hunt. :laughing:

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For Rob: I also am sticking with NGS. It is too much trouble to enter duplicates into the state database.

 

For Jeff: You answered a question I have wondered about; i.e., is anyone still setting benchmarks? Year 2000 is the most recent I have heard about! Meanwhile, if I get any useful info from NCGS, I'll let folks know.

 

-Paul-

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For Jeff: You answered a question I have wondered about; i.e., is anyone still setting benchmarks? Year 2000 is the most recent I have heard about!

Yes, there are benchmarks newer than 2000, but the newest ones will not show up in the geocaching.com database, which was acquired from NGS on CD-ROM - a format they no longer distribute - updated to around 2002, and there have been no updates since. If you want to find newer benchmarks, you'll have to go directly to the NGS site (but of course, since they are not in the geocaching.com database, you'll be unable to log them here).

 

~ArtMan

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Jeff,

 

At the root of Survey, Geodetic work had to be done to establish elevation. The essence of what defines Mean Sea Level is the shape of the earth, and that part of it defined as the geoid. There are several models of this geoid as such and we refer to them as Datums. In other words a definition of a geoid. So the federal government established the shape and elevation of the country.

 

Going forward, a State would continue to be interested in geodesy, whether they call it as such or just refer to themselves as a Civil Engineering Department. They will want to perform Leveling procedures, Traverses, and Triangulations of the land to locate important things, Develop Infrastructure, Topographic knowledge etc, so they can study Hydrology of rivers, maximum and minimum stream flows, controlling hydro electric projects, and how they will flood when they do, and where the damage will and wont be, information which is also important to insurance companies. Emergency management reasons, infrastructure development and city planning, and on, you can see how knowing where and how High above sea level becomes very important after awhile. We take for granted, much, and are pretty happy that rainfall runs off the street into the gutter to a storm drain, and goes... Somewhere.

 

Bottom line, Yup, those old Bench Marks were pretty important.

 

Paul,

 

Yes the NGS is still actively studying the Geoid, and the big thing in recent times is CORS. Continuously Operating Reference Stations. You can check into the system here:

 

http://www.ngs.noaa.gov/CORS/cors-data.html

 

The background on how they work today is as interesting as the historical work.

 

Yes you can recover them if you look for them in the NGS database. Some may and some may not be in the GC Database.

 

Enjoy!

 

Rob

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