Jud....
He was a wise man to escape the steamy humid swamp of the central
Willamette valley.... even the moss grows healthier here than in
the in most rain forests.... The land of soggy as I so often
refer to it as!
We get a lot of that here. Not much snow, but cold, cold rain.
Here in Southeast AK we also have to work in the rain to keep the money coming in. I can do other work and wait out the rain at times. Other times I just can't. I recently spent a week at a remote village, floatplane tickets each way were $900 or so. So there was no waiting for the rain to stop there, and that area gets 200 inches of rain or more per year. I have a Topcon IS robot and new GPS gear and all works great as long as I baby it at night and let it dry out and warm up in a heated room. The data collector acts a little different when its that wet, mainly some of the beeps and chimes are quieted for some reason. Sighting the robot can be difficult, but I usually only have to do it on the backsight, then the instrument takes over.
You mean: all you have to do is walk through the woods with a machete; setting up points for a traverse; to be run at a later date?
You're a sweet guy, Perry, but you are not made out of sugar and you won't melt...;-)
The worse that will happen is that you will get a little wet; my suggestion is to dress warm.:snarky:
I surveyed in Nebraska for 15 years before moving to Washington. We always went home if it rained. But I've worked in 110F heat and -10F cold and I think I like the rain better.
We went over 70 days, this year, without measurable precipitation; I'll take that any day of the week.B-)
Radar
Rain has no effect on us for field work except to make it unpleasant. Freezing rain can cause some problems. Wind and rain is tough as most equipment can take rain but has more problems if it is going sideways. Generally we stop if we think tripod will blow over. We have heavy chains we rap around the legs to help hold them down. We use plastic hard hats velcro'ed to the top of instrument and modified car hub caps velcro'ed to top of prisms to help some. I have seen the numbers run right down the screen, smoke and water run out of instruments. Some brands are better than others with weather.
what equipment?
"And getting back across the river which looked easily wade-able yesterday". Surveying in New England can be fun. Like the cedar swamp trying to find a line of sight and building bridges out of deadfall across deep streams or look for the one you can walk across carrying the equipment. Sometimes the roads on the Gazateer do not show the wash outs...chainsaw,chains,shovels...more bridges...
Rain has never stopped our field work for more than an hour an that's only when its just dumping. Snow, on the other hand, causes much more problems....and the fog. Some days in the winter the fog never lifts, or it may not be foggy at the office but the project is socked in.
It seems like I worked a lot more days with snow on the ground in Nebraska, but then it doesn't stay around very long; where I live, in Washington. I've delt a little with the fog, but it's never bothered my GPS:-D That's the best part of this region; it's temperate climate. We have 2 weeks of summer; 2 weeks of winter; and the rest of the time it's spring or fall.:clap:
But don't tell anybody, it's a secret....:snarky:
Cheers,
Radar
Rain Work
Unfortunately for me I often can't avoid working in the rain. My ALTA clients tend to be a bit pushy on deadlines regardless of weather considerations, and I guess if I were borrowing huge sums of money I would be as well.
That being said there are some simple precautions I take in regard to keeping the equipment in good shape. For static GPS observations in the rain I have a simple rubbermaid container that all the externals are placed in. For conventional robotic data collection and stakeout I have a simple golf umbrella setup that works pretty flawlessly:
The data collector and radios are put into large ziploc bags if necessary and it's work as usual!
If I'm cutting long lines in the woods I just wear my weatherproof jacket and some rubberized grip gloves that give me a death grip on a machete or bush axe. One of my favorite things to do is actually cutting in the rain when I'm caught up on all the cad and billing. And no, I don't let my employees go with me if I'm cutting line when it's wet......it's just sort of a past time I've always enjoyed and my insurance carrier wouldn't be too happy if we were slinging razor sharp objects around one another in the rain.
My rig. Works great.
set up my traverse as I am shooting
> Perry,
>
> I see what you mean. Being solo, I generally set up my traverse as I am shooting, ms.
>
> Good luck!
With a 100 acre parcel or less, I can usually set up the job in one day and run the traverse in another day.
If I set up as I went, then we would only make into the woods and would have to hike out unfinished, then in another day, hike back in to the stopping point and finish.
It definitely takes less man-hours to do the setup first, at least on large parcels.
> Here, we can have a rain that lasts a few days, but its rare, so I will live to survey another day after it dries out.
I understand that. You don't have to work in the rain, so you don't. Pacific NW'ers don't work in the snow, mostly. I just wanted to make the point that it isn't your equipment that is stopping you.
The only way weather is a factor in Alaskan surveying is by how much longer it will take you to work through it.
like others have said TS's and GPS gear can take near constant rain, for many years, without being damaged. Just don't put it away wet!
The main reason I don't work in the rain is I can't read the data collector.
Surveying in the Rain?
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