Hey Boss,
For various reasons including health issues, estrangement and ongoing divorce from Mrs. Bubble, and having domestic violence perpetrated upon me by other family members, I am taking a sabbatical down here in the Oregon Outback. I'm too ill to work productively for anyone and friends keep telling me give up and apply for disability. In the meantime, I mostly pick up cans. Every day I work towards getting my tool chain going again, the Swiss Miss, the laptops, Star*Net, TraversePC, Columbus, etc. yet it is not something I feel is efficient enough to sell, and I can't really predict which days I'll be functional. Probably the most professional thing I've done since getting the license is ... nothing. Haven't created any unhappy clients and haven't taken on any liability. Sometimes I think that when all the legal stuff is settled I'll move back up to the dry side of Washington, preferably a small town in the desert, and live happily ever after.
In the meantime I have found a few NGS monuments that haven't been recovered in a long time, have never been observed with GPS (in a publicly shared way), and some of which would really help the geoid model in this area if so observed.
Probably my biggest lesson in all this is learning to ask for help and learning to ask for what I need. If ever I needed some help, it is now. If any of my posts have ever helped you with information, procedure, general knowledge, passing the exams, etc., please consider donating to my crowdfunding campaign on GoFundMe. Would also appreciate any suggestions for how to better explain what I'm doing, what we are doing with GPS On Benchmarks and OPUS Sharing.
https://www.gofundme.com/BenchmarksInLakeCo
Thanks for reading, feel free to share.
Have you contacted Mark Armstrong, the NGS Advisor for Oregon (and soon to be Washington and Idaho too), to get his feedback or input? Have you approached your State Professional Society or local chapter covering that region to make them aware of your project and enlist their help on some way? Mark's contact information can be found here:
http://geodesy.noaa.gov/ADVISORS/
What you are working on is worth of the effort. Anyone who has tried to use scaled coordinates listed on a bench mark datasheet will understand how poor those positions really are. The value of occupying strategic marks with survey grade equipment and submitting through OPUS Share to improve the next iteration of the hybrid geoid model is something that will benefit all users in your area. Get them involved!!!
No need to point you to the NGS GPS on BM's resources. Your site proves you are quite familiar with them already.
Best of luck and hope your heath and life conditions improve soon.
