John Hamilton, post: 389100, member: 640 wrote: My first job out of college in 1986 was with Geo/Hydro, which was one of the first (or the first) GPS company, they started out using Macrometer V1000's (pictured in the first post) around 1984. Each day before the sessions we had to bring all of the units together and sync the clocks using either GOES time receiver or a Trimble 4000A. Then the 4000S came out, and we started using those for "lower order" surveys. The V1000 required a $3000/month subscription to get an ephemeris for processing, whereas the Trimble did not (but there was no software at first).
I remember processing the V1000 data, on a special computer, took a day or so to process a few baselines, manually fixing cycle slips.
"...manually fixing cycle slips."
No one who has not done such a thing can appreciate how much fun this was! GAWD!! Aspirin, Tylenol, alcohol!!!
Lee D, post: 389164, member: 7971 wrote: Were those Macrometers single or dual frequency? I remember the WM101 (WM was Wild - Magnavox) and WM102; the 102 was dual frequency.
The Macrometer Model V-1000 is a geodetic positioning instrument that uses the radio signals broadcast by the GPS satellites. The Macrometer is the only GPS user equipment commercially available that does not require any of the GPS codes. The Model V-1000 receives only the 19-cm wavelength signals from GPS although similar instruments, built for the U.S. Air Force Geophysics Laboratory, receive both the 19-and the 24-cm wavelengths. In this paper we summarize the results of two years of field testing of the V-1000. This instrument, observing four or five satellites fof a few hours, yields a point position accurate within several meters in each coordinate: latitude, longitude and ellipsoidal height. All three components of the relative position vector between a pair of points can be determined within 2 parts per million of the distance, given a similar schedule of observations. This accuracy has been obtained for intersite distances from one kilometer to several thousand kilometers.
Macrometer is a trademark of Aero Service Division, Western Geophysical Company of America