Your longest shot with a total station

I can't remember exactly but it was around 8k with a HP3810A.?ÿ We were working at a golf course development that was almost all of 3 sections.

We had gone to the job in the dark of a morning to catch first light so we could avoid the radiant shimmer. I was running the instrument and quickly realized we were at the limits of the HP optics.?ÿ The target was a tripod mounted triple prism.?ÿ I knew exactly what I was looking at but there was no distinct clarity.?ÿ 2700 yds. is a fair piece.

We pulled a white van broadside behind the target.?ÿ Once I had the contrast it was a piece of cake.?ÿ I remember taking a staggering number of shots to satisfy the boss.?ÿ None of them varied more that a few hundredths.

About 4 miles for a tie to the nearest monument to an Alaska State Land Survey.?ÿ

With strictly total stations around 12,000 ft, easily double that with the old HP units. But they weren't what I think of as total stations.?ÿ

It wasn't unusual to run 20 mile traverse legs.?ÿ

Then in the mid 90's GPS made all that unnecessary.?ÿ

I don't recall the details, and it was Not a Total Station, but the HP3810A
LOTs of Glass, about 9 pieces, roughly 6 miles. (two NGS stations on the same datum). we wanted an accurate geodetic direction and confirmed the BS that way.
hilltop to hilltop, clear cool air. We could not "see" the glass, just pointed as close as we could and got a return by slowly sweeping around.
If I recall correctly it was rather accurate after applying the long list of corrections.

Later I learned about using Lights at night with a tellurometer device i the dark of the moon. Much more accurate!

Over 10,000 ft. with a Topcon GTS3b to a Topcon 9 prism holder.

Over 25,000 ft. with an HP 3810b to a single prism (a semi-total station).

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Posted by: @loyal

Over 10,000 ft. with a Topcon GTS3b to a Topcon 9 prism holder.

Isn't the Topcon's longest wavelength 2,000 meters??ÿ How'd you resolve the integer value?

In school we did one that was at least a mile.?ÿ The instructor hopped is his truck and went and set a 3-prism array across the valley.?ÿ I remember not being able to see it but we could see his truck and just aimed for that.

Never more than 1/2 mile, no reason to, good control in my territory and itƒ??s flat too. ?????ÿ

@jim-frame

That was an issue with my AGA76 & 78 units (easily dealt with), but the GTS3b would readout 10k+ distances (in feet) without any problem.

When I was 15 in 1975 dad had get a shot across a canyon. This took a lot of planning because it was so remote. It took a long time to get at the set up leave the instrument man then drive way way around to the other side in a jeep. Radios were iffy at that range. We had flashing mirrors binoculars, headlights and flags just in case. Got to other side. Could barely see orange spec of iman. Unfortunately we couldn't hear him but at least he could hear our radio. There was a problem. Asked if he could see us, did he get the shot? Apparently not. Tried to figure out what the problem was by asking questions and looking for a good flag wave. No luck. Long time. The day looked lost. Finally we barely heard a sound.........it was the IMan screaming and screaming "power"!!!!! He had no power! We could see the orange spec jumping up and down enraged and screaming. We were stumped. Then, dad got the radio and asked "did you remove the lens cap?"

That was probably a Kern DKM

Set 3B in about 1993- 10000ƒ??plus to a double stacked triple prism. From the hill near the Eureka cemetery to a control point in nw Quadrant of the intersection of US 93 and Mt 37. Weƒ??d traversed out with several 1500ƒ?? shots to get LOS into the dips and draws along the way and then we shot the long shot back in the morning when it was cool with fresh batteries. Had good closer B/B was a solar on the 1st 1500 ft leg. Adjusted it with compass rule. Good enough to build with scrapers and a couple of 16Gs. Iƒ??d like to process that trav thru star*net...

@aliquot

What kind of instrument?

About 8000 feet with an HP3810A. This was classed as a Total Station EDM. Once past 2000 meters, you had to shoot using slope distance, the vertical angle and apply the correction factors. Also had to know how many increments of 2000 meters were involved. I shot both ways from a point in between and the readings conversion checked within 1000ths with the displayed distances with the overall data. Did shoot 7?« miles once with Tellurometer MR3's, but these were not a Toral Station.

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Posted by: @warrenward

That was probably a Kern DKM

Yep, a Kern fixed rod forced centering theodolite with a DKM 503 attachable EDM was the shizzle prior to the integrated total stations with data collector.?ÿ It had slightly better optics than a Wild T2 and the balanced on the telescope EDM made shots simple and quick.?ÿ I was odd to fire off the EDM and hear the attenuator iris click back and forth until a suitable transmit/return signal was achieved, sometimes 10 seconds or so.?ÿ A huge advancement compared to the HP EDM or "Guppy" EDMS mounted on the standards.

Was good for two miles in favorable conditions and rock solid in traversing where the average range was a few thousand feet max.

Not a Total Station but I had the opportunity in the 70s to run a Tellurometer CA-1000 with the standard horn antennas for several hundred slope distance shots and the probable error of a single determination of distance was less than 1.5 cm, and the scale error due to atmospheric refractive index determination and crystal frequency drift was usually less than 5 ppm. Kinda crappy for short shots but near GPS accuracy for long shots in stable atmospherics.?ÿ The best we got was a few 15 mile shots and reliably 6 mile shots.?ÿ The guys with the parabolic antennas I knew were making 20+ mile shots often.?ÿ The killer is you cannot determine the slope angle using microwave EDM directly (the target is not optically observable usually) so the levelling accuracy is suspect, only way to clean it up was to level to the observing stations from nearby benchmarks.

Why did we do such long distance measurements??ÿ We could measure Township boundaries to determine chaining excess/shortage errors in original surveys and look for obvious busts across section lines in the Township(s).?ÿ Also great for long level lines for dams and canals, gravity pipelines (sewers) to detect big problems in long range bubble levelling.

Of course GNSS surveying has made it obsolete, but 'll claim 10 mile shots with regularity using terrestrial?ÿ equipment 50 years ago so I'm the champ. <g>

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Posted by: @jim-frame

Isn't the Topcon's longest wavelength 2,000 meters??ÿ How'd you resolve the integer value?

The GTS-2B book claims 7200 ft on one prism under ideal atmospheric conditions, and 14,100 ft (4300m) with 9 prisms.?ÿ So apparently they didn't have an ambiguity problem even in that older model.

Speaking of antiques ...?ÿ no distance record, but I did a mile with my GST-2B on one prism. Never tried a longer range.

@mike-marks?ÿ You are the champ for 10 mile shots.?ÿI don't think so. In 1973 in Montana we did a lot

of 20 mile shots with the MRA3 Tellurometer; and I do not call myself anything for that.

With my DI3000 and my Wild T3000 I have shot over 11,000 meters and I can go much farther.

JOHN NOLTON