Editorial: Following the Footsteps, Old and New
Our cover this month pays tribute to a group of Wyoming surveyors who organized an expedition to Surveyor's Notch in the Wind River Mountain Range, following the footsteps of the Hayden expedition's surveyor/topographer/cartographer A.D. Wilson and crew. On those days when you're feeling stressed and ....
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Wow Factor: Image Integration: A High-Productivity Approach to Managing Digital Photography
Surveyors today employ a variety of ways for documenting their field surveys. Measurements and descriptions are recorded in electronic data collectors. Audio recorders can be used to record comments and parol evidence from property owners and other stakeholders. Field books contain ....
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Surveyor's Notch
It's March 2008. I'm in the office downloading data, and Jay says "Hey, I found something in a book I was reading about a feature in the Wind Rivers called Surveyor's Notch. Have you heard of that?" "Yeah," I reply, "it's right there by Wind River Peak. I can see it from the top of the hill as I drive to ...
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Celestial Observations: A Brief History of Elgin, Knowles & Senne and their Ephemerides
Until the early 1980s practically all surveyors used the Altitude Method to determine the astronomic direction of a line, based on a celestial observation of the sun. That method required the surveyor to measure the vertical angle to the sun, but did not ...
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Marketing Techniques for Laser Scanning Service Providers
I frequently hear surveyors and office managers saying, "This scanning stuff, in ten years everyone will have it—­that's the future." That is confirmation that 3D Laser Scanning has been accepted among the general land surveying community. Those of you scanning for a half decade or more can ....
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Mobile Scanning is Good Business
Killer bees, 108-degree heat and minus 45-degree cold: these are conditions under which Clay Wygant has worked, and they're all too familiar to many surveyors. But what excites the senior surveyor and his team today is mobile scanning technology. Since implementing an Optech LYNX ....
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Hardware & Software Review: Carlson Surveyor and SurvCE
If you're in the market for an extremely durable, fast, comfortable and well-equipped data collector, check out the Carlson Surveyor. Based on drafting specifications by the folks at Carlson Software and using the very reputable people at Juniper Systems to make it a reality, this unique data collector merits ...
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GIS Data Integration with the GCDB
In April 2000 by the Western Governors Association adopted the Bureau of Land Management's Geographic Coordinate Database (GCDB) as the preferred representation of the Public Lands Survey System (PLSS) for GIS applications. This is significant in the western states where ...
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Vantage Point: Watch Your Language
If we as surveyors sometimes find the language of deeds murky, imagine the misunderstandings among laypeople—many attorneys included. Recent clients had to defend themselves against new neighbors claiming a right to cross my clients' property, based upon recycled language in my ...
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FeedBack
Compass Pointers. In reference to "Training Recruiters: A New TwiST" by Tim Kent, LS, [Feb. 2009], here is a tip for compass pointing students. Take the pens out of your hand. A typical ball point pen will draw the needle considerably. Also, a cell phone within a few feet will also interfere. Thanks for a great ...
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Survey Or No Survey: The Unlicensed Land Surveyor
When is locating someone's property corners or boundary lines not considered the practice of land surveying? Unfortunately, this question has become a gray area in the surveying profession, and some licensing boards are seemingly unable to control the actions of unlicensed individuals doing ...
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