5.4.1 GPS Static Surveying: Field Procedures
Equipment necessary to carry out a GPS survey can be categorised according
to whether it is:
Equipment per site for field work.
Equipment at a base station or the field
office.
Equipment for Instrument Station
The following list may be taken as a guide:
- GPS receiver, antenna and associated cabling.
- External batteries (including spares), battery charger.
- Data storage consumerables, for example memory cards, diskettes, and
possibly a P.C. computer for logging or downloading data.
- Antenna tripod, tribrachs or adaptors for mounting antenna on pillars.
- Compass and clinometer for determination of the azimuth and elevation
of possible obstructions to satellite signals -- reconnaissance may be
performed "on-the-run" during a survey!
- Pocket tape, 30m tape, plumbobs, umbrella and supports, etc.
- Theodolite for eccentric station survey, or sun/star azimuth observations.
- Thermometer, psychrometer and barometer for met observations (if insisted
upon).
- Fieldbook(s), maps, access details, observation schedule, skyplots,
instructions, etc.
- Useful ancillary equipment: camera, watch, communications equipment.
- Surveyors toolkit: spanners for trig stations, construction of masts
(to raise antenna above trees), clearing undergrowth, etc.
- Transport vehicle.
GPS receivers are complex and expensive instruments -- has everyone
read the manual? Keep the antenna, receiver and cabling together in
a "kit". It is vital that the cables be looked after and the connections
kept clean as they must carry the signal to the receiver.
Equipment at Base Station or Field Office
The following may be taken as a guide:
- Portable computer with suite of software for the downloading, checking,
pre-processing, and perhaps baseline processing, of GPS data collected
by individual field parties.
- List of station coordinates, topographic maps, observation schedules,
recovery/access diagrams, client instructions, useful contact addresses
and telephone numbers.
- Data storage consumerables, for example diskettes, for the archiving
and storage of tracking data.
- Cables and ancillary equipment for downloading data from GPS receivers.
- Computer modem for transmitting data to head office.
- Communication equipment, for example radios, or at the very least telephone
procedures to ensure contact between field parties and head office.
- Spare GPS receiver(s), cables, batteries, and other field equipment
that may not be needed by field parties every day such as, for example,
theodolites, EDM, etc.
- Transportation.
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© Chris Rizos, SNAP-UNSW, 1999