NSPS Surveying USA - March 19th!

WGA Member Joined: 2004-05-19 Posts: 730

On March 19th 2011, a first-ever simultaneous nationwide Global Positioning System (GPS) survey will be conducted by members
of the National Society of Professional Surveyors (NSPS)
to commemorate National Surveyors Week and promote the numerous benefits of GPS.
This effort will include volunteer surveyors from all 50 states and numerous U.S. Territories.

Those survey data which meet requirements will be a valuable contribution to the National Spatial Reference System,
a nationwide survey control network which links and improves federal, state, and local surveying and mapping activities.

Anyone with a handheld GPS unit and is able to read an NGS datasheet is encouraged to participate.
DIRECTIONS & PARTICIPANT FORM & IDEA SHEET
Each state shall have a State Coordinator who will get all the information out to their constituents.
Each state shall conduct NSPS Surveying USA day in whatever way they see fit.
Each participant may observe any point they wish and use whatever grade GPS they have available.
Each State Coordinator shall be responsible for collecting all data from their participants and forwarding all results to
Debi Anderson, NSPS Governor of Montana.

Each participant shall be responsible for providing the state coordinator with the following information:
State, Participants Name, Description of Point observed,
length of time of observation, LAT/LONG in Degrees, Minutes, Seconds.
State Coordinator should not have to process any data even for those participants occupying points of a higher order
since everyone can provide the LAT/LONG no matter what grade GPS they are using

The following is a sample form for participants.

PARTICIPANT FORM

STATE ________________________________

PARTICIPANT NAME ____________________________________________

DESCRIPTION OF POINT OBSERVED (include PID # and/or Name) ___________________________________________________

LENGTH OF TIME OF OBSERVATION ________________________________

LATITUDE/LONGITUDE IN DEGREES, MINUTES, SECONDS
___________________________________________

This is the first time they are actively encouraging geocachers to take part and submit their observations.
(If anyone has ever had to submit a form to the NGS, knows how tedious and exact it has to be).
This is an opportunity to help out without having to jump through the hoops of an official form.

If anyone would like to participate or has questions, please post!
We'd be happy to answer what we can! We'll also email the above form with the email address where to send it to when completed!

Posted: Fri Feb 18, 2011 9:49 pm

I'd be interested in this.

Posted: Sat Feb 19, 2011 1:30 pm

I saw this posted over on GC. I'm planning on being a part of it too.
From what I understand, there really isn't a gathering or anything like that. You just go out, find a benchmark, and submit the special form. Does that sound right?
Maybe we could get everybody interested together and do an event? I'm sure it would only be a handful of us, but it could be fun.

WGA Member Joined: 2004-05-19 Posts: 730

glorkar wrote:

I saw this posted over on GC. I'm planning on being a part of it too.
From what I understand, there really isn't a gathering or anything like that. You just go out, find a benchmark, and submit the special form. Does that sound right?Maybe we could get everybody interested together and do an event? I'm sure it would only be a handful of us, but it could be fun.

Yup, that sums it it up quite nicely!

An event would be fun for the three or four that would attend. Very Happy

Posted: Sun Feb 20, 2011 8:21 pm

Can you submit more than one form?

Posted: Sun Feb 20, 2011 9:48 pm

I guess I'm slow, so here's my dumb question. What's with the lenght of time of observation portion of the report?

WGA Member Joined: 2004-05-19 Posts: 730

CodeJunkie wrote:

Can you submit more than one form?

Absolutely!

just make sure that station matches EXACTLY with the datasheet (do not use the description on the gc.com pages, you must use the original datasheet from ngs which, can be accessed from gc.com enchmark page).

WGA Member Joined: 2004-05-19 Posts: 730

hotdogs_off_trail wrote:

I guess I'm slow, so here's my dumb question. What's with the lenght of time of observation portion of the report?

To make sure the GPS unit you are using has time to settle for the most accurate reading. They ask that each station be observed for at least 5 minutes. Professional surveyors observe a station for a mimimum of 4 hours. Very Happy

If you have the time, just set the GPSr directly on top the mark and leave it there for 5 minutes, then take the reading. That tends to be be our method and seems to work well. If you don't ahve the time, just be sure to accurately report the length of time - whether 30 seconds or 30 hours.

Posted: Mon Feb 21, 2011 10:31 am

AstroD-Team wrote:

CodeJunkie wrote:

Can you submit more than one form?

Absolutely!

just make sure that station matches EXACTLY with the datasheet (do not use the description on the gc.com pages, you must use the original datasheet from ngs which, can be accessed from gc.com enchmark page).

I'm assuming it's OK to use any NGS benchmark and not just those on the GC.COM website.

Posted: Mon Feb 21, 2011 10:34 am

As a side note, the following is a website I've used a few times to ID various benchmarks that I've seen roadside while traveling. I'm not sure where the data came from, how it's maintained, how accurate it is, etc. but it's pretty interesting. It includes way more than the official NGS benchmarks (WIDT and CGS are just some of the additional included).

http://benchmarks.scaredycatfilms.com/WI.html

Posted: Mon Feb 21, 2011 6:00 pm

It looks like the only thing they aren't including are intersection stations (church spires, water towers, etc...)

Scaredy Cat's website is great, I use it all the time. CGS was integrated into the NGS some time ago I believe. I've never seen any WISDOT ones listed on there though.

WGA Member Joined: 2006-12-23 Posts: 5957

AstroD-Team wrote:

Professional surveyors observe a station for a mimimum of 4 hours. Very Happy

Boy, I hope a station isn't a cat.... trying staring one of them down for 4 seconds let alone 4 hours Razz

WGA Member Joined: 2004-05-19 Posts: 730

glorkar wrote:

It looks like the only thing they aren't including are intersection stations (church spires, water towers, etc...)

Scaredy Cat's website is great, I use it all the time. CGS was integrated into the NGS some time ago I believe. I've never seen any WISDOT ones listed on there though.

I LOVE scaredy Cat's site as well! Hubby has been using it planning which BMs to go for while in the keys next week.

Posted: Tue Feb 22, 2011 5:53 pm

Well, do we want to make this an event? Where should we meet? I know Astro Team D is from the Green Bay area, CJ is from Berlin and I'm in Oshkosh. Not sure if anybody else is interested.
We could go somewhere none of us has really had a chance to benchmark in before. Maybe figure out a route to take to recover as many as possible. That way each of us could report at least one mark for the national event, but we wouldn't have to go our own separate ways.

For location, I've not really been anywhere out of the Oshkosh, Appleton, Berlin, Fond du Lac area so I'm open to anything beyond that.

WGA Member Joined: 2004-05-19 Posts: 730

glorkar wrote:

Well, do we want to make this an event? Where should we meet? I know Astro Team D is from the Green Bay area, CJ is from Berlin and I'm in Oshkosh. Not sure if anybody else is interested.
We could go somewhere none of us has really had a chance to benchmark in before. Maybe figure out a route to take to recover as many as possible. That way each of us could report at least one mark for the national event, but we wouldn't have to go our own separate ways.

For location, I've not really been anywhere out of the Oshkosh, Appleton, Berlin, Fond du Lac area so I'm open to anything beyond that.

We've done a few in the Fox Valley area. I guess I think we should all look to see what area has quite a few BM that would be finadable and plan on meeting somewhere in that general locale.

I think the best thing to do would be to post our event ideas/locales here....

WHOO HOO!!!! Benchmark event!!!!!