California Surveyors Forums

Hats off to the Central Coast Chapter and Tom Mastin for organizing volunteer GPS on Benchmarks weekends.
https://www.centralcoastclsa.org/index. ... enchmarks/
I especially like how they are all going to meet afterwards at a pub for a debrief.

If you have not heard about the GPS on Benchmarks program, take a look at the NGS webpage dedicated to this program:
https://geodesy.noaa.gov/GPSonBM/index.shtml

NGS indicates this program is vital to transitioning to the Modernized National Spatial Reference System (NSRS). “Crowdsourcing and submitting geospatial data to NGS is how the Modernized NSRS will be realized and accessed”.

CLSA held a webinar on the GPS on Benchmarks program in January, the recording is up under the Members section of the CLSA webpage.
In January, the status for California was 15.6% of the 10km goal being met with 353 10km hexagons completed. Currently the GPS on Benchmarks Dashboard indicates California's 10km goal is 20% complete with 456 hexagons completed. The deadline to submit data which will be used to create the NAVD88 to NAPGD2022 translation is December 31st, 2021.

Check out your area on CLSA's status map at:
https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/viewe ... 10404&z=12

#GPSonBMs

Mr. Tom Mastin did a great job at organizing this event, we had our first Saturday over the weekend and we will be out again next Saturday.

Measure those benchmarks!

MONUMENT PEAK NCMN 1983 (DC1438) completed today.
The big laser in the background is a NASA project that measures to satellites.

Bonus photo of the CGPS station MONP on site operated by Scripps.

The needle is moving. 22% of the 10km hexagons show as completed, up from 15.6% in January.

I know there are some Surveyors in San Diego that have completed many that do not reflect in this total, but more Surveyors need to step up if we are going to get close to the goal.

Looking at the Mark Recovery Dashboard https://noaa.maps.arcgis.com/apps/dashb ... 2d5a0d5498 , I have submitted about half of the last 25 submissions in California. Don't forget to submit the Mark Recovery, found or not, to update the NGS Datasheet making it easier for the next Surveyor to judge where the benchmark is and if it is still there.

Hats off to Philip Melcher of Provost & Prichard Consulting Group!

Looking at the NGS GPS on BMs webmap, there is quite a number of completed observations in Fresno, Visalia, and throughout the Central Valley, most with his name on them. Philip has been at this for a couple of years now, well done!

You can find Philip on LinkedIn posting about GPS on Benchmarks.

Breaking News!


"NGS is officially extending the GPS on Bench Marks Campaign’s cut-off date for one year, until December, 31st 2022. Partners are encouraged to continue to collect and submit GPS data to NGS for use in developing products to be launched with the Modernized National Spatial Reference System.

This extension reflects the NGS commitment to include as much local data as possible in determining the Reference Epoch Coordinates (REC) that will be used to create the Transformation Tools that will be released with the Modernized NSRS. This will allow users to transform their data between current vertical datums and NAPGD2022, the new geopotential datum being developed for the Modernized NSRS."

I know some of you were wishing you had more time to complete the 10km hexagon goals, so here is your chance.

Current status is 24% of the 10km hexagons completed for California.

I know of some more submissions in San Diego and Imperial Counties that are not reflected in this number, but many other areas in the State have no submissions yet such as Caltrans Districts 1,2, & 3.

Please help get the word out.

California's status on the 10km spacing (hexagon) goal is currently at 28%

In this screenshot, anywhere there is yellow or blue still needs to be completed.

Green hexagons and white dots are completed benchmarks and 10km hexagons.

Hats off to Jim White, the Sacramento County Survey staff, and MANY local surveyors in the Sacramento region! The green and white area in the center of the PNG above can be attributed to their efforts. Strong work!

In the spirit of recognizing excellent performance, hats off to Philip Melcher of Provost & Pritchard for submitting data for an incredible 650 benchmarks to the NGS GPS on Benchmarks program!

https://bt.e-ditionsbyfry.com/publicati ... &ver=html5

While the Central Coast Chapter probably wont get 650 benchmarks (bravo Mr. Melcher), we are hoping to finish our area in 2022!

https://www.centralcoastclsa.org/index. ... enchmarks/

Wonderful article!

Hat's off to the other Phil

Crazy Phil - Surveyor to Recorder

hellsangle wrote: Fri Feb 18, 2022 11:49 am Wonderful article!

Hat's off to the other Phil

Crazy Phil - Surveyor to Recorder

High praise from a former editor!

Thanks Phil

For Global Surveyors' Day and National Surveyors' Week, I observed SDGPS 31 (DC2135) today.

I hope you all are finding ways to celebrate too!

I spent the morning yesterday getting GPS on Benchmarks at station CRQ A, a Secondary Airport Control Station.

A little bit of surveying, a lot of plane watching, not a bad way to spend the day.

California is at 32% of the 10km goal and 38% of the 2km goal for the GPSonBMs program with less than 6 months left to get data in for inclusion in the NAVD88 to NAPGD2022 Transformation Tool program.

There are still more in San Diego County I want to get.

I've been contacted by a few surveyors about the program. If there is anything I can do to help you will the program, feel free to email or message me.

Steve Martin

I just flashed on something . . . (As you know - crazy Phil's a little s-l-o-w)

Are other surveyors also amateur radio operators? If so, it might be a great way to get some "on air" time (called QSO) while staying near the receiver. As long as one's transmissions don't cause interference with GPS signals?

Crazy Phil (Surveyor to Recorder) WN6VOO

NGS Announcement:

"New NSRS Modernization Release Timeline: Mid-2025

NGS will release the data and a limited set of tools for the Modernized NSRS by mid-2025. See the July 2022 edition of the NSRS Modernization News or the June 9th, 2022 NGS Webinar “It’s 2022, Are You Done Yet?” for more information on the revised schedule and what will, and will not, be included in that release.

Given this revised timeline, NGS will keep the doors open for submissions of GPSonBM data for the transformation tools through the end of September 2023. Data submitted before the doors are closed will be considered for use in the 2020.00 Reference Epoch Coordinate (REC) adjustments. Data that passes through the adjustment quality-control process will be used to assign REC coordinates on marks in the Modernized NSRS. Marks with valid coordinates in both NAVD 88 and NAPDG2022 will be used to create the transformation grids that will be released with the modernized system.

Once released, the transformation grids will remain static and the points used will serve as the definitional points in the NAVD88-NAPGD2022 transformation. New GPSonBM observations submitted to NGS after September 2023 will have RECs and Survey Epoch Coordinates (SECs) computed in the new frames, however they will not be added into the set of points that define the transformations."

California is now at 36% complete on the 10km hexagon goals and 43% complete on the 2km hexagon goals.



PS> Phil you get plenty of time for social networking, air time, or whatever you want to do with 4.25 hour observation sessions...