Please recomend a GPS for this application

[boXCar JiggY]

My dad want to take corner readings so we have an idea of our boundary lines for our 80 arcres, so we need a very accurae GPS in hopes to get within a few feet, any recomendations without breaking the bank? brand? ect.. Thank you

[Wes Ellis]

Not sure you can get as close as few feet.

Had a guy with a back mount booster trying to mark pot latch land and he was off over 20 feet.

My buddy was at my place when they were trying to find the lines showed him where my line was. He didn't believe he was off that much.

[BobT]

If you're looking for a handheld I would recommend Garmin handhelds. I have a Rino120, which also has two-way radio capability, and with WAAS turned on, can get to within 6' to 9' accuracy in most places. That's about as good as it gets with any you will find to my knowledge.

The Etrex is probably their most reasonable offering at the moment.

The GPSMap series is good and offers more features and functionality.

[BobT]

Not sure you can get as close as few feet.

Had a guy with a back mount booster trying to mark pot latch land and he was off over 20 feet.

My buddy was at my place when they were trying to find the lines showed him where my line was. He didn't believe he was off that much.

After posting what I did, I reread the OP and I don't know if we are able to obtain anything more accurate than what I've already described without a commercial license.

[Big Bobber]

Do you know any farmers with sattelite tracking monitors in their tractors?

[Whoaru99]

You're trying to take position readings of some sort of official markers?

Or, you have "offical" GPS coordinates from survey of your properly and want to see the actual points on the ground, so to speak?

[kfk]

I'm not really sure what you want to do either, but to be accurate for surveying within an inch or so), you need a GPS receiver using RTK or a signal called RTX or something similar depending on the manufacturer. WAAS will be too far off for anything very accurate, especially if you're talking about accurate property lines. A surveyor should have access to the proper equipment to do it right.

[Sorgy]

You will not find a GPS that will tell you the corner location.

I am not a licensed surveyor but work with many. I also have lots of construction experience using the top of the line GPS receivers.

The licensed Land Surveyor cannot pick out the corners of your property without preforming a section breakdown. It is a profession in which they have specific training on how to handle breaking down the sections and passed the Federal and State tests to get their registration. I think the test is like 8 hours long.

Timber cruisers may get lucky and be very close to the actual line. However many times they are off by very big distances.

Having your property surveyed is expensive and a time consuming proposition. However there is no doubt as to the actual corners position.

If you hire a local Land Surveyor who has done work in the area or maybe even already performed the section breakdown you may get a bit of a break.

The GPS equipment that they would use is a survey grade receiver. The newer receivers will track many satellites and possibly even use the Glonas system. They also utilize some sort of a correction signal from either a VRS system or a second GPS receiver set up on a known point that would broadcast a correction to the rover the are using in the field.

You could contact the surrounding land owners and see if they would be interested in having the property lines surveyed.

Good Luck enjoy you time afield this fall.

Steve

[Pinusbanksiana]

I can run your property lines for you for a fee using the old methods of tying into known corners and measuring distances. I have done this for 20 years or so. If you are interested get me a message. Depends on where you are talking about though, I am up north.

[delcecchi]

My dad want to take corner readings so we have an idea of our boundary lines for our 80 arcres, so we need a very accurae GPS in hopes to get within a few feet, any recomendations without breaking the bank? brand? ect.. Thank you

If it was surveyed in the past, maybe 30 years or so, there should be stakes at the corners. rent or borrow a metal detector and look for them first.

[boXCar JiggY]

Thanks for the replies, sorry for the bad desription I want to find boudariee or close to it basically our corners, there are no markers.Pinusbank, i sent a pm. thanks

[delcecchi]

Thanks for the replies, sorry for the bad desription I want to find boudariee or close to it basically our corners, there are no markers.Pinusbank, i sent a pm. thanks

Looks like the surveying systems use two frequencies and a "reference receiver" sort of a local differential type system. They are quite expensive. Perhaps they can be rented or borrowed if there is someone nearby that has one.

Another possibility, depending on your time and accuracy requirements is to use averaging. Best is to record position several times a day for a week or two, preferably at sort of random times. Just go to where one corner should be and set a waypoint. Do this over and over again. The middle of the cluster is close to true position.

You might check

http://edu-observatory.org/gps/gps_accuracy.html

and

http://www.fs.fed.us/database/gps/gpsusfs.htm

You can also "post process" the data since the errors vary relatively slowly. So you locate a known point and then offset the unknown points.

What accuracy are you trying to get?

[boXCar JiggY]

Well as acurrate as i can get if thats what yu mean, the neighbors took some gps readings an we feel that its exaggerated a bit, they say their reading are good to with in 15 feet. our idea of the line is about 15 yards their way from where they flaged. I know its not much an everyone is on the same page so to speack an very civil, but the issue is safty durring hunting. its a safty issue not a property dispute. we have safty policies in place that everyone can agree on, an they seemed to need to draw a line so we want are line drawn an come togehter in the middle. small footage i know but this is what happens with land ownership an could be much worse. I know with outh spending a mint the handhleds are all we can go with for now, which one is te most affordable an acurrate right now?

[Pinusbanksiana]

pm'ed you back. You are just too far away from me to make it fesabil for me to drive over and do the work. Keep in mind that you don't need a gps to find your property corners or boundary lines. Good old fashion line work can get you what you need too. Go to the county survey and get their survey notes for the area, find the section corners, determine the bearing and picket fence a ribbon line to the next corner. If it doesn't come out right, use trigonometry and calculate the correct bearing, and run it again.

[h8go4s]

From the Garmin HSOforum:

"Today's GPS receivers are extremely accurate, thanks to their parallel multi-channel design. Certain atmospheric factors and other sources of error can affect the accuracy of GPS receivers. Garmin® GPS receivers are accurate to within 15 meters (49 feet) 95% of the time. Generally, users will see accuracy within 5 to 10 meters (16 to 33 feet) under normal conditions."

And this:

"GPS drift is caused by many external factors and consumer grade GPS devices cannot account for these. GPS drift causes the device to appear to be moving on its own. It is most obvious when looking at a track or when zoomed in all the way while at a standstill.

Satellites send their signal through the atmosphere down to earth. The atmosphere distorts this signal, and other environmental factors (such as trees, hills, mountains, buildings, cars, reflective surfaces and more) can further degrade the signal.

In the past, a satellite signal weakened by the environment caused a loss of position. High sensitivity chips were created so that it was no longer a question of if you had a position lock, but how accurate that position lock would be.

Now only the weakest signal prevents the device from locating your general position, but as a result, the decrease in accuracy that is introduced by the environment causes GPS drift. In other words, the device is more sensitive than the environment allows it to be accurate."

In my opinion, the best you can do in your case would be to stake out a 100-foot wide no-man's land on either side of the points your neighbor marked.

[delcecchi]

My take would be to first negotiate with the neighbor, and then if you need more accuracy, pound a stake in the ground on the hypothetical line and go out a few times a day to set a waypoint at the stake. Do it for a week, both of you. Then get together and compare.

Or use the track function and walk the "line" out and back twice a day for a week, and compare. I have taken a walk on a blacktop bike path, out and back and noticed a fair distance between the tracks at some points, over the space of a couple hours.

I don't quite understand why this would be a safety issue. Seems to me you guys could communicate where each other will be while hunting so as to not endanger one another.

[boXCar JiggY]

Without going into details it is a safty issue, as said we are civil an working things out. just want to find boundary lines so there are no if ands buts about it. thanks for all replies greatly appreciated. PinusB. curiosity what would have charged us regarless, an what title dose one hold to do such work so I can research to find one around here. thanks

[h8go4s]

Where is "around here"? Your profile gives no location. In Minnesota, you need a Certified Land Surveyor. Yellow pages.

[Whoaru99]

Without going into details it is a safty issue, as said we are civil an working things out. just want to find boundary lines so there are no if ands buts about it. thanks for all replies greatly appreciated. PinusB. curiosity what would have charged us regarless, an what title dose one hold to do such work so I can research to find one around here. thanks

To h8go4s point, since you're trying remain civil "working it out" but there is apparently a disagreement, I think the surveyor is your only option now - an independent, third party.

Think about this - why would/should your neighbor accept your readings as fact any more than you accept his readings as fact? Fact is, they won't. If it's that big of a deal to call it a saftey concern then get the licensed surveyor.

[Tom7227]

You can get a decent idea by using Google Earth and the measurements you can create. Of course that assumes you have a road or something to work with. It is far from foolproof though. I was helping a friend who lived close to the Pine/Carlton county line. The county line on the computer was 60 feet from the location of the road that was supposed to be the boundary. A friend who is a registered surveyor said that the modern GPS surveying equipment routinely shows these kinds of errors. When it happens a negotiation or a legal action is the only way to nail things down.

[boXCar JiggY]

Thanks for the input an replies,much appreciated.

[delcecchi]

I agree that the only sure thing is get it surveyed. Perhaps the neighbor would split the cost, seeing as there is some disagreement?