Survey Grade Cell Phone-Now Available!

he can find lines, they may not necessarily be the lines

This guy will call you later after he is done playing surveyor and wants you to meet his attorney regarding a boundary dispute. More of these problems will arise giving us more credibility and opportunities to educate the public.

So what's the proper reply for this asshat?

Ask him if it's 3G or 4G. Tell him to make sure his Tweet selector switch is set to the "on" position, then initiate the iAssHat app. This will insure that his iPosition will be compliant with standard iBR549 protocols. He should be good to go after that.

Dale Yawn
iSurveyor
Savannah, Ga.

I would have thought that compliance with the iD 10 t protocol would be more appropriate for cell phone boundary surevys.

It would be extremely interesting to see where you found your determined corners vs. the conclusions of the phone guy. I guess there could be all kinds, from the ones who go to there coordinates from the co. GIS and say that's the corner, to those that go to their coordinates and start sweeping the general area looking for monuments.

I say there's nothing wrong with a landowner going out with their gps, or legal description, compass and tape and looks for the general limits of what they own. I would tell him that surveying is expensive and that they should only hire you when they want a more definitive conclusion.

The fact is that surveying is expensive to much of the general publics' eyes. It's not their fault that they don't know how much it should cost. If anything it's our fault. It's also not their fault that they don't know what all goes into a complete boundary survey. If anyone's it's ours.

Ian,
Junior Samples, our protocols expert, tells me that regional variations exist in the protocol schema. In the southeastern portion of the country, generally, we adhere to the iBR549 standard. Mind you, we are open minded enough to accept other standards, but we remain convinced that our iAssHats are the gold standard for intelligence measurements everywhere. Just watch some of the southern flavored reality shows on TV. They prove my point.

Best Regards,

Dale Yawn
Savannah, Ga.

land surveyor in Central New York had a geologist come into his office and request that he prepare a map and description of his property based on the coordinates he had obtained with his hand held gps so he could go before the planning board for subdivision approval.

More than likely you will hear from his NEIGHBOR who will question the results of the "wander-around-with-cell-phone survey".

I think surveyors need to open their eyes. There are instances where a hand held gps unit works just fine for a home owner. Case in point my brother in law's family own a section of land in northern California that he was grading a pad for his personal home. He invited the family for a ground breaking ceremony and picnic. Being the surveyor I am, I asked him where his property line was. His response was we own all of this, with his hands out stretched. So I asked again, where is your property line? He stated that own section xx and down over there is a historic fence and he has always understood that to be the section line and the family property line (his dad probably told him when he was a little boy). So I asked if he was willing to bet 300k$ on that! (Price to build his dream house), and that got him thinking. I had recently got my Apple phone and had loaded esri ArcGIS so as I sat around drinking a beer I started playing with the program, I quickly found USGS quad maps via 'USA Topo Maps'. I pressed the gps icon and a blue blinking target appeared on the screen with the quad sheet in the back ground. The sections lines showed up on the map so I gathered my brother in law and we went for a walk with a cold one. When we got to the historic fence the icon showed we were on the section line, it looked like we were closer to the 1/4 corner so we headed south along the fence line till we got to the little symbol that looked like where the 1/4 corner would be. We looked around and there was a pile of rocks with a 2" ip with a county surveyors cap stamped 1/4 X/X. We then proceeded north for 1/2 mile along the fence following the blinking icon and we came to a four way fence intersection, and low and behold, another pile of rocks with another county surveyors cap all stamped with the section corners. My brother in law was now willing to bet 300k$ on that old wire fence. (I offered to do pull the maps and do more work to make 100% sure that everything checked out, but he felt fine with that my little phone had confirmed).
I realize that I am a surveyor and know more than the layman, but not for long, the laymen have been using quad sheets for years for hiking, hunting, timber cuts, mining, and so on, now GIS information is available with a click of a button and available to all and getting more and more accurate all the time. Jp

I didn't say I was against him locating his lines with his phone. People can do what they want with their own property, and folks are smarter about it than others.

People can do what they want with their own property

But what about the owner on the OTHER side of the line?

I keep hearing how an owner can survey his own land, but every line has 2 sides. How can he survey his line without, by default, surveying his neighbor's? That is where we come in, with our license.

Am I missing something?

KS

Oops, I meant SOME folks are smarter about it then others.

But yes, it's their property and if they choose to mark their lines, they're free to do so. People can do what they want with their own property. I do a lot of work for people who have marked their own lines...usually after a survey finds their house over the property line, or improvements, etc.

I keep hearing how an owner can survey his own land, but every line has 2 sides. How can he survey his line without, by default, surveying his neighbor's? That is where we come in, with our license.

It's not a survey, it's an owner who chose to do it himself. I can't demand that he hire a surveyor.

iBR549: formerly known as "Colonial States"
iD 10 t: forerly known as "PLSSia"

What was the approximate area of the survey? Are we talking about a quarter of an acre, or a quarter of a section? As you see by the branching threads below...

size matters. 😉

Well, just like an owner imagines h knows where hisboundaries are and builds a fence, he can wander around with his phone. Either way, can force you to gets real survey to disprove him.