All posts by Scott Martin
![HARN](/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/20170730_123713_resized-272x192.jpg)
Are HARNs on Death Row?
In the late 1980s, the National Geodetic Survey (NGS) launched a program, in cooperation with State partners, to establish a High Accuracy Reference Network (HARN) across the United States. HARN’s History With the rapidly increasing availability and use of GPS equipment, NGS recognized the need to establish a network of high-accuracy, passive survey monuments with...
![Whisky Pass Colorado, 1935. Credit: NOAA National Geodetic Survey](/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Colorado-leveling-272x192.jpg)
Trial by Fire: First Party Chief Experience
As we ponder the many challenges presented by the rapid transformation of the land surveying profession, the topic of mentoring often comes up. I have written about that topic a couple of times in past editions of Field Notes. (The image above is Whisky Pass Colorado, 1935. Credit: NOAA National Geodetic Survey.) I attribute much...
![women playing baseball](/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/w_baseball-272x192.jpg)
The Young Surveyors on the Young Surveyors Network
Note from Editor Scott P. Martin: As I read and absorbed the Young Surveyors Network response (below) to last month’s Field Notes, I realized that I have been ignorant of the perception and perspective young surveyors have of our profession and the old guard. We have contributed greatly to our own demise (I touched on...
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Your Local Knowledge Is King
Although the adage, “Your local knowledge is king,” could apply to other professions or even trades, I think it is especially true in our profession. When a surveyor practices in a given area or region, or possibly an entire state, knowledge is gained and lessons learned about many things that determine one’s ability to remain competitive,...
![Mt Rushmore](/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/cropped_RushmoreConstruction_SourcenationalParksService-272x192.jpg)
Surveying States: Different, Yet the Same
With the President’s Day holiday recently behind us, a day I refer to as Surveyor’s Day (think Mt. Rushmore) and National Surveyors Week starting on March 18, 2017, I can’t help but think about surveyors across the United States as a whole. Although my entire professional practice has been in California, over those years I have...
![Geospatial data aligned with Geodetic control toothpicks](/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/toothpicks1-272x192.jpg)
GIS Technology: Get It Surveyed
As I approach my 30th anniversary of being a licensed professional land surveyor in California, I can’t help but think about how things have changed over those years. One word: Technology. It has changed everything. For me, it started with EDMs, then total stations. Handheld calculators were emerging. When the HP 41-CX came out, that...