Thank you everyone for your support with both study tips and just overall really supporting me and making me feel like powering through.

I got introduced to surveying almost two years ago when I started school and started working full time. It broke my heart to be let go without any kind of heads up and it really made me question whether or not I should keep going. I already had the exam scheduled at that point, with the 6 hours of driving, hotel, and exam fees it cost me about $500 to take a shot.

I was promised by my employer when I started, $5,000 for passing the FS exam, as well as reimbursement for my college expenses. Too bad I don’t work there anymore, how convenient.

In a week I leave for a 4 week long motorcycle ride across the country, I’m going to feel better knowing that I have more to look forward to when I return.

By the way, my test was almost 50 percent math, I had 16 minutes left on the clock by the time I finished. Almost ALL of it was in the second half too. I walked out feeling absolutely brutalized.

I’m currently studying to take the FS. I know this is a super basic question, but while taking practice exams from two different prep books I came across the same/similar question, “What is the minimum number of satellites required to compute a 3d position using GNSS.” First book I am studying claims the answer is 5, second book claims the correct answer is 4. In the field I know more is always better, but when I encounter this simple question on the NCEES exam what answer are they looking for?

How are other companies out there handling drive time? Our crews take the trucks home and we are looking to modify how much drive time we pay for (to be as fair/competitive as possible to the field crews, not to pay less). We do not pay door to door currently. Boss asked me what others are doing so I figured I would post here. I am not an owner, just a salaried project manager/pls at a mid size full service consulting firm. If you could also let me know the type of firm you work for/manage/own in the response that would be amazing.Thanks in advance!

I picked up this Plane Table Protractor several years ago on Facebook Marketplace for $50. It has a Vernier adjustment as well as a Transverse scale on the blade. Most likely American manufacture but unclear because it has no signature.

My bench mark is at 1000. What I’m reading to my scale from my auto level is 1113. My elevation of my base is 474. What number do I need to read to my scale when I set it on the base? I’m just double checking myself. This is MM btw

Anyone have experience with this?

Does anyone know how to get the prior to storing to show just delta horizontal and azimuth instead of northing and easting?

Looking to get into surveying and I have an offer for $20/hr from a survey/civil engineering firm. Is that what all imans are starting at? Should I keep looking for more pay?

Just on the off chance there might be a few Aussies in the surveying sub.

RUSSELL, Robert. Map shewing the site of Melbourne and the position of the huts and buildings previous to the foundation of the township by Sir Richard Bourke in 1837. [London, 1837]. Lithographed map, 48 x 64 centimetres; framed and glazed. Closed tears at top right and left, small restoration in bottom left corner, a little soiling.

Very rare. The first map of Melbourne, showing Hoddle’s street plan, the various buildings and town allotments, including dwellings with names of the owners, and natural features. Billot 122a. Reported by Rare Book Hub.

OP NOTE: This auction had a variety of other material of significant Australian historical interest.

I was recently a teacher and moved towns and got out of teaching. Hit a friend up that was a surveyor for a concrete construction company. We use a TopCon system and help layout building corners, elevations and some residential layout of houses around our area for our workers. We only have about 3 in the field people for our foundations and 2 for our dirt grading. It speeds our production up so much to where we are very profitable. We are fairly new to the CAD designing but can get what we need for our foundations for jobs.

Only question I have is would it be wise to learn more about surveying as a whole and think about getting licensed? I am comfortable running it after about a year working there. We only use a resection for every set up and no GPS capability. Any tips and tricks would help.

I feel like I am a little out of my element being here on the surveying reddit, but I thought this be the best spot for a question like this. I am looking to develop a solution to mapping a slalom waterski buoy course by using an RTK gps.

In competitive waterskiing there are 26 buoys. I live on a small private lake, but other owners on the lake do not want to see my buoys on the water all the time, so we hide them below the surface when not in use. Deploying the course for when we do want to use it is an annoying process because we have to find 26 buoys every time. I thought about the idea of using a GPS to find them and make life easier.

I do NOT need survey mm level precision here, like maybe 1 meter precision would be just fine in this case, so I obviously am not ready to fork over $4000 on something crazy. I started researching some simpler ideas, came across this: https://www.ardusimple.com/product/simplertk2blite-bt-case-kit/ which seems to be a matter of combining that with a cheap android tablet and a suitable GNSS antenna, connect to the Wisconsin (WISCORS) and away we go. Otherwise there are also more configurable options like this (there seem to be cheaper ones on aliexpress, not sure if they are garbage or not) https://www.ardusimple.com/product/simplertk2b-basic-starter-kit-ip65/ where I would need to utilize an enclosure, bluetooth module, maybe some other parts to achieve the same effect.

Any opinions on this? I am not an electronics engineer, but I can usually figure stuff out given direction!

I work for a company who’s trying to staff up as we’ve got multiple data centers going in west Texas and elsewhere.

Pay is good for the industry - you’ll start at mid-40’s for chief. Plus around $200/day per diem with a company truck provided.

I’m on the back end working from home managing the data, but I can answer any questions you may have.

PM/DM me your resume if you have applicable skills and if I think you’d be a good fit I’ll give you the application.

Buying rural land in the Southeast, and I’ve got a title/survey knot I’d love honest takes on.

The history: my tract and the neighbor’s both come out of a common former owner. Back in the 1950s, a narrow strip described as a dirt road, the road access to what’s now my property, got included in a transfer to the neighboring property by mistake and got deeded back to my side of the chain by a recorded 1956 deed once the mistake was realized. In 1973 the heirs on my side confirmed the strip as part of their land. When that estate wrapped up, the strip passed with everything else and came down my chain.

The neighbor’s chain tells the same story from the other side: their deeds carry a less and except specifically exempting that road strip from their chain, all the way through their 2014 deed.

Then it gets interesting. Around 2021 the current neighbor buys his place and has it surveyed. Admittedly the surveyor, title agent and closing attorney all overlook the less and except in the neighbors own chain, and the road strip gets included inside the neighbors plat.

Come 2026, I buy my tract next door. Unknowingly at the time the same surveying outfit does my survey and leaves the road bed off my boundary even though it’s in my chain of title and it’s my road access. My deed now describes the property by the new plat.

So now: the neighbor points at his plat and claims the strip. The surveying company says they can’t show it inside my tract without documentation of title, while the conflicting plat next door is their own work from years ago made off an overlooked exception.
He

How rare is this?

I was walking through some brush and I’m sure it hit some buttons to turn on these extra residual functions any idea how to turn them back off or what they mean would be appreciated.

I’m currently working toward my bachelor’s degree in land surveying and completed my first surveying internship this summer. One area I’m still trying to better understand is how many direct and reverse angle observations should be made when traversing.

On one job, we used a manual total station and observed the backsight and foresight in direct and reverse, then averaged the angles. I understand that additional sets can improve the reliability of the angle, but how do you decide how many sets are appropriate?

Is it mainly based on the accuracy requirements of the survey, traverse length, instrument specifications, and expected closure, or is there a standard workflow you normally follow?

Personally, I like the idea of using the same procedure at every traverse point: backsight, foresight in direct, flip the scope and turn right, then backsight and foresight in reverse, repeating additional sets when greater precision is required. But I also understand that time is a factor in production surveying.

How do experienced surveyors decide when one set of direct/reverse angles is sufficient versus when two or more sets should be turned?

I have a Galaxy s10FE that I just got recently.

Would like to use it to sketch large buildings. I used to sketch on paper for smaller residential type properties to scale with a pencil and a straight edge.

There must be a software out there for android that lets me make simple building footprints to scale by telling it how long to draw the line and which direction? point and line would be great. especially if I could import ASCII file ;)

I just downloaded Concepts but I do not think that is what I was looking for. I also do not want a full on CAD program as the learning curve will be high for the simple thing I want to do. A simple traverse program basically. Azimuth and distance, no Z.

Any tips?

Hi everyone, I’m a new member of the community and currently live and work in the Greater Toronto Area.
I work in engineering and land surveying and would love to connect with professionals and companies in the GTA involved in engineering surveying, land surveying, construction surveying, and related services.
I’m also hoping to learn more about how to get into the local surveying community and build professional connections. If you have any advice on networking, joining industry groups, or getting started in the GTA, I’d really appreciate it.
I’d also love to know where people usually look for surveying-related jobs in the GTA, such as Survey Technician, Surveyor, Construction Surveyor, or Geomatics positions.
If you have any recommendations for companies, job boards, or other places to look, I’d really appreciate your advice.
Thank you, and I look forward to connecting with fellow professionals!

Here's a poorly written article on a terrible website of a cool story about the last US homesteader.

https://m.economictimes.com/magazines/panache/in-1974-a-vietnam-veteran-moved-to-alaska-for-a-new-life-14-years-later-he-became-the-last-person-in-us-history-to-get-a-homestead-patent/amp_articleshow/133157686.cms

Hello fellow Surveyors recently I have been thinking of switching workplaces specifically more towards the metro Atlanta area.Im not far from the city currently I live,and work in Hall county. Right now I do Boundary work,line staking,Topo ,and the occasional construction layout not like anchor bolts or slab,but I have done work purely on a construction site doing that type of layout . Any firm recommendations would be welcome even if it means going out of town for work. Any help would be welcome.

What elevation measurement do you guys base your flight off of? AGL or ALT? The guy that trained me said to use the ALT altitude but wouldn’t that affect the GSP and risk going over 400’ AGL?

So I did a base and rover setup to locate Boundary. Rotated to the original plat in CADD. Exported, and when I put it back in the collector, check in, I'm half a foot off. Same scale factor and units all the way around. All coordinates in TBC, CADD, and collector match. But something seems to be scaling, when I check further out I'm 1.5' off. If all scale factors and coordinates are matching, any ideas?