Hi there! Two of our previous posts were dedicated to the work with antenna height in RTK and PPK. In this connection, it would be great to recollect what you need to consider when choosing a survey pole.
Everything seems pretty easy, but there is one tricky thing you need to pay attention to. There are different pole types: some of them are designed for GNSS receivers, others—for a variety of sight levels, such as total stations, construction or laser levels, etc.
Those designed for the equipment different from GNSS receivers usually have different mounts and graduation scales. See for yourself, if you take a pole designed for a total station, you may get a height error of 14 cm because it also considers a reflector. The fact is that the side marks on the pole are 14 cm higher than the real height—you can check this simply by measuring it using the measuring tape to avoid discrepancies. So, when choosing a survey pole, make sure it suits your needs.
And here is an overview of survey pole characteristics with our comments that will ease the agony of choice:
Materials: Aluminum, fiberglass, and carbon fiber. It should be a good combination of low weight, long durability, and affordable price.
Height: It may be with a predetermined height or graduated for different heights. Choose the one that meets your needs.
Accessories: A bubble level and a mount for a smartphone will definitely make any surveying job easier.
Special features: If it’s a foldable survey pole then you can easily take it wherever you want, especially in the carrying bag.
That’s it! Probably you already know that we have our own telescopic aluminum survey pole which is compact and lightweight. We combined the best characteristics to make the most of your surveying. If you haven’t seen it before, check this page.
And which criteria should your survey pole meet? Share them with us in the comments below!
I can recommend the Emlid pole, we have bought 3 so far. Even the supplier who sold it to us hadn’t sold it before our request and is impressed.
For us it’s very useful because it shortens down to 74 cm in seconds. Very advantageous when laying GCPs by car as it’s quick and easy to get in and out. Also convenient in difficult terrain or undergrowth.
The initial reason we got it though was that it can be packed into a suitcase for overseas projects.
The fact that Reachview has the 180 cm as default reduces one source of errors.
Definitely going with lightweight and compact.
Height choice between 1.80 and 2.00 can be a plus when doing very intense surveying. Even if with predetermined height, the pole should have a line showing that the pole has been extended to the fullest. This would make me more confident to use it and control the height anytime just by looking at it.
That being said, I really like your pole !
I have some updates for you: we just released a new version of the survey pole. Now it comes with a smartphone mount. So you can fix your phone and control working with the receiver using the app with one hand. More details are here:
