SURVEYORS OCCUPY USA 2012 -- March 24, 2012

So "they" want me to work on Saturday? What???

GPS day should be moved to Tuesday... That's just poor planning.

is that your creation, Wendell? If so, can it be shared online? I like it!!

I threw it together in a few minutes and yes, you are welcome to use it. 🙂

So I've been inundated with claims from Javad that "third party" assessors have said his stuff works, and everything is cool...

How do I know what to believe? Has Javad really sold out completely, and become an enemy of all of us that need to get work done? What's going on?

(BTW, I was a Physics major at CalTech, and am also a musician, so I have a fairly-good idea of what's involved in filters. So if Javad is trying to "patent" the idea of such a filter, I understand how he hopes to reap millions off of something that's been understood for years by claiming he has a patent... Although I guess the question is how he thinks he can open up these high-level filters at affordable costs while simultaneously charging EVERY GPS USER for a retrofit, yet still claim he's doing it for the "common good"....)

Mine is still cooking....almost done w/5 hours of observation.

DDSM and I spent 5 hours observing on a 1st Order bench mark today. We got plenty of sun.

Sinc, Javad got caught up in things he does not understand about America. He thought this problem was an engineering problem and it was not really that at all. It was a political problem. He has staked his reputation on that and it is not going well for him. American surveyors can see that even though he may say he has a filter to correct all, we don't care. It is a political problem. That is the issue and that is the problem. He doesn't have anyone to tell him that so he keeps reacting like it is an engineering problem. You understand this, right?

Makes perfect sense, see engineers do it all the time in all disciplines. When faced with a problem, the blinders go on until someone points out nobody really wants a practical solution.

Must Have Been A Busy Day

I still did not get an OPUS-RS back.

My base point cooked for 5 hr 18 min, not that I planned to spend that much time. I set up 2 Z-12s on my PQ and head out to hit 9 remote points. I put a ProMark 2 on a traverse point to the West of my PQ, then drive N, E, S, W, N and W to get to the next town South of my PQ, the long detour because two bridges between the towns are out, one fell into a sinkhole years ago and the second is under deck repair. I set up 2 PM2s along Main Street of the next town to get coordinates on some corners to establish a 24 acre parcel that stretches 1/2 mile to the PQ South boundary. The deed calls for 6 pins, in or near Main Street and 6 pins along or near my PQ, the latter which I could not yet find, and nothing in between. The deed has 27 courses, crossing a railroad, crossing, recrossing and along a creek. All I have found in or near Main Street is a sound by the curb and an adjoiner pipe that may or may not be a tract corner.

The adjacent neighbor (his father was a farmer that dealt at my father's farm equipment store) has 2 lots, the more removed of which is marked and he asks the cost to replace the two nearest (also on the 24 acre tract) markers. He brings out his 2 lot subdivision map from 1976 for me. While the GPS is cooking, my cousin drives buy, circles the block and stops. He is all dressed up on his way to a funeral. As we talk neighbor walks out, I lead my cousin to him, turns out they went to school together. My cousin asks me where the access to the field is and I point it out as what I am surveying. I break off the reunion chat and grab my masonary drill and start to dig for the RR spike. There is 4" of exposed curb and I am down 4". My cousin comes over and says I am going to need a bigger hole as he explains the curb in that area was as high as the rim on hos Farmall M's rear tire. I stop for the day hoping that the adjacent pins and the sound location are sufficient to find the rear a 1/2 mile away.

I pick up my 3 PM2s and go to the cemetery which abuts the PQ farm to the East. Thankfully they are setting up for the burial in a different section from where my traverse points are. I had to traverse across the cemetery to locate the markers set when the cemetery and church had a boundary line agreement, nothing called for along the PQ. With 2 PM2s in the cemetery I drive into an adjacent filed and head for my PQ's private rail crossing where I have my southermost traverse point to date. Set up and go to start my son's Jeep (my died last week, different long story) to cross the track and drive South to the creek to again look for corners. Nor even a click, call my son's cell, no answer, call his house no answer, call daughter-in-laws cell, she had jsut left the house and my sone was out in the yard. I then call my wife's cell, she is shopping, my daughter drove and is currently in a different store. Call my daughter's cell, my son-in-law is with them and when they all get home they will call me back with rescue plans.

I head South afoot and begin my second search in the area, using the adjacenr deed overlaid on an aerial photo I look for the markers East of my PQ finally findin a 30" sycamore with wire remnants at 90° to a farm to the NE. I pace North and find a 3/4" rebar flat on the ground, return to the sycamore and pace West. The creek has moved North and there is good probability it has gobbled up this marker and a common marker with the PQ to the West. By then my son calls me, we discuss my situation, he will come and cross the fields in his wife's SUV, brave boy, to rescue me. My son-in-law calls he is home and anxious to offroad with his neighbor's 4x4 truck, I advise him to hang tight until Plan A is formulated. Son calls back, BTW did I check the battery connection that keeps coming loose? No, I will once I walk back, but my tools are home in my dead Jeep. Trek back, fish out pliers from my survey bucket loosen, reset and thighten the ground connection. The nut is kinda boogered but it starts right up, pick up my 3 PM2s, nobody in the cemetery but the backfill crew.

I check my base Z-12s, one starts beeping when I touch the screen button, the jump start battery is just not going to last through overtime. I swap antennae and set up a PM2 then head West off my PQ. I set an PM2 on a travers point North of the earlier setup and head South along the creek and the borough sewer plant fence to an area I have yet to traverse to. Set a dock spike South of the sewer plant fence and set up my last PM2. The sewer plant abuts the PQ on the West side of the creek and I have yet to find any called for markers from the plan. I walk out to be met by a local policeman, "Oh, it's you" which is the third time that happened with the different Jeep. We discuss fishing and the local kids who may have night fished some trophy stocked trout a week ahead of the season opening day. At the end of the sewer plant access road I am met by a neighbor out soliciting for the local Easter egg hunt. I make a cash contribution but the conversation continues. He reiterates he is interested in a portion of the farm.

Drive to a point North across the current state highway from the farm, a corner to a part of the farm that was cut off by highway relocation 80 years ago. Set up the Z-12 and plug it into the cigarette lighter, dismal start with 4 satellites, probably should have reinitialized, but I hate to do and risk good data that has not been downloaded, slowly creeps up t0 7 satellites. My wife calls, my daughter is cooking fish and it will be ready at 5:30. At 5:02 I shut down figuring my 33 minutes would be a good OPUS-RS. Probably not, OPUS-RS is mulling over as I type that too long a start at 4 satellites. Probably should have waited 10 minutes more with the good data and had cold fish. I may have to trim it back to 15 minutes of the last data, but not this morning, as it is off to church.

Long story short, for what it is worth, I have 5 hr 18 min of OPUS with acuracy LAT 0.019m LON 0.007m on a dock spike in a yard by the side of a private lane on GPS day.

Paul in PA

That's right on.

The purpose of engineering is to serve the needs of society, not the other way around.

Sometimes Land Surveyors do the same sorts of things.

Played both sides of his own argument

He tried to play both sides of his engineering-political argument. He screamed on his little paid soapbox that it was an engineering problem, but what he was screaming was often just as political as what he was claiming he was countering. Even putting a defaced picture of a politician on his website. Not a good business plan.
It is an engineering problem, but he only offered a solutuion for a tiny segment of equipment and only for the lower band. He was not the only one who said there could be filters for the lower band, but like the very worst kind of engineer he extrapolated his solution as being suitable for all problems, and he became an extrme advocate for forcing the changes on a rapid and dangerous timeleine.
Trying to secure his place in history, it is not about money or politics, it is about feeeding his insatiable ego. He already has a place in GNSS history but he could end up ruining that. He can't have it both ways.