The American Surveyor Vol 8 No 8

Editorial: Polarization
The ninth meeting of the Space-Based Positioning Navigation and Timing advisory board, held in Alexandria VA on November 9, 2011 was widely anticipated as a "showdown" between the anti- and pro-LightSquared forces. While the meeting scored points for both sides, it left unanswered some of the most important issues: the upper spectrum band, and who will pay. Those who are just now ....Read the Article

Voyage of the Koo Koo Sint & Paddle Song In 1811, David Thompson, surveyor and fur trader for the North West Company reached the Pacific Ocean, adding the Columbia River as the final leg of the Fur Trade Highway from Hudson's Bay and Montreal to the Pacific Ocean and becoming the first person to survey and map the Columbia River from its source near Invermere, British Columbia to its ....Read the Article

Rendezvous 2011—Altered Contours From sometime around 1000 BC through 500 AD, natives piled great quantities of dirt into all shapes and configurations within the valley of the great river. What was the purpose of these mounds of fill shaped over fifteen hundred years in the south-central region of present day Ohio-- Religion? Artistic expression? A means of hunting, securing necessary ....Read the Article

Vantage Point: A Homeowner's Setback Minnesota's Supreme Court recently struck down earlier decisions favoring a homeowner's complaint against the local city for errors related to the homeowner's shed. While Dr. Rajbir Sarpal and his wife Dr. Carol Sarpal had prevailed in the district and appellate courts, this May 2011 opinion (797 N.W.2d 18) remands the case back to district court, primarily regarding the point of equitable ... Read the Article

Footsteps: Finding the Courage to Say "No" My father died in May. He was 52. The loss of someone close to you, especially your father, forces you to examine your life. You ask, "Am I following the moral principles that I was raised with, even when I'm under pressure to compromise?" This loss in my life and three recent situations I observed in my career as a land surveyor have prompted me to write this article. Boundary surveying is a branch of ... Read the Article

Conference Review: CGSIC and ION 2011—GPS-Greater than the Sum of its Parts The 51st Meeting of the CGSIC and the ION GNSS 2011 was held September 19-23, 2011 in Portland, Oregon. I can think of no better combination of conferences that serves to illustrate (to paraphrase Aristotle) how the "whole" of GPS/GNSS is certainly "greater than the sum of its parts". These two events are "the" place to interact directly with the constellation operators, policy makers ...Read the Article

Data Mine—From Limestone Mine to National Archives Storage Imagine you are charged with this task: Accurately survey the interior of a limestone mine cut into the base of a bluff­a cave with vast expanses, irregular surfaces and no light. Collect data on enough individual points to create a meaningful model of the space so that it can be designed and built for warehousing and storage. The challenge would be ....Read the Article

A Colonial Surveyor in President Jefferson's Public Lands
My apologies to Mark Twain, as in parts of my journey to obtain CFedS Certification I felt like the Connecticut Yankee, in King Arthur's Court, but in reverse. That is, I was the learner and my predecessors were the teachers. Also, my appreciation for American Surveyor Magazine's motto "A Foot in the Past...An Eye to the Future" prompted me to write about the journey that I recently ....Read the Article