Hi
I need to capture the exact GPS location of some underground water valves. What device do I need to purchase to do this so we can log the exact coordinates and find the exact location again?
We have the new SouthPAN network which is meant to provide over-the-air accuracy down to about 10-20cm so it should work outside of cellphone coverage.
I see surveyors occasionally during my travels with their two devices (base station and rover) but i think the SouthPAN network means we dont need that sort of fancy equipment and could do it with something like a single rover type device?
15-20cm accuracy (10 inches) would be okay. So we know we can go back to a specific gps coordinate and dig with a spade and easily find the buried water valve box.
Reach receivers track SBAS satellites. Depending on the coverage, it helps to slightly improve the positioning accuracy in the SINGLE mode when the device has meter precision. But we haven’t tested it with SouthPAN, so it’s hard to say how it would work and what accuracy you’d get.
Still, if you need a centimeter accuracy, we recommend working with classic techniques like RTK or PPK.
I don’t think you will be able to avoid purchasing or leasing “that sort of fancy equipment” to achieve repeatable observations with a 20 cm accuracy.
So you might consider a single rover such as the: Reach RX receiver which can measure & record real-time corrected data accurate to 20cm. This accuracy is also dependent on your length of your baseline.
You could also consider the slightly pricier Reach RS2+ which will allow you to post-process data where no cell phone coverage is available. This workflow will require a bit more technical expertise and would probably be best done with a Base & Rover on site, where no cell-coverage is available.
Hope this info is useful.
