Survey E-Newsletter

Welcome to the latest edition of KOREC's Survey Division E-Newsletter. In this edition you will find updates on recent updates to Trimble firrmware as well as the New8 GNSS System.

As always, you can stay up to date with the latest developments ar KOREC by visiting our website at www.korecgroup.com, and if you have any feedback for us please do not hesitate to get in touch.

Thank you for your continued business and support,

Very Best Regards

Andy Beckerson
Survey Sales Director

Specialist Surveying Hire

In these difficult times you can gear yourself up for extra work without committing huge amounts of capital investment. Hiring from KOREC allows you to build the cost into the job without having to stretch your budgets for new equipment or pay out for maintenance of existing kit.

We have increased our investment in our Hire fleet with the latest Trimble Spatial Imaging products. In addition we have added even more Trimble GPS+GLONASS Rovers, which can use the improved Trimble VRS Now Service with GPS/GLONASS corrections, and even more Trimble Total Stations.

• Competitive pricing
• Instant availability with sameday delivery
• Extended opening hours, 7:30 am - 6:00pm
• Nationwide delivery fleet
• Free on-site consultation available Service and repair by Trimble certified experts
• Dedicated specialist hire team
• New training schedule for 2009
• One call for all your hire and accessory needs:

Call now on 0845 603 1214

Updated: Trimble Survey Controller 12.43

Trimble Survey Controller 12.43 is now shipping. This version includes support for the new Trimble R8 GNSS. For more details, please see the release notes at www.trimble.com/tsc.shtml. Ordering and Download Information: Version 12.43 is available for download from the Support Area of the Trimble Web site. It is a free upgrade for controllers with a warranty date of 10/2008 or later.

Updated: Trimble GNSS Receiver 4.01 Firmware

Trimble GNSS receiver 4.01 firmware will be available 10th April, 2009 for the Trimble R8 GNSS, R7 GNSS, R6, 5800 II, 5700 II and Trimble NetR3, NetR5, and NetR8. This new version includes the updates listed below. New Trimble Proprietary Correction CMRx Message Format:

• Handles an increasing number of satellites and signals.

• Allows for a greater number of repeaters because the messages are more compact.

• Increases battery life at the base station radio and repeaters; smaller messages result in shorter transmission time.

• Sends smaller volumes of data over the Internet, which results in lower costs. RTK Engine Improvements:

• Faster Initialization.

• Improved performance in heavily attenuated environments.

• RTK positioning at ranges over 20 km.

Web User Interface:

• Web UI is now available on Trimble R8 GNSS and R7 GNSS

• Support for new browsers: IE 7.0, Firefox 3.0, and Safari.

• New tracking, general and configuration pages for improved navigation in the Web interface.

• Enable option on the Power Save menu reduces power drain on the receiver (Infrastructure receivers only).

Ordering and Download Information

Version 4.01 is available free of charge under a warranty or support agreement.

Survey Receivers: To download the update, go to the appropriate receiver’s Support area of the Trimble Web site. For receivers without a valid warranty agreement, an upgrade must be purchased. Once on the current firmware, users will need to purchase a separate extended warranty agreement to keep up to date with firmware releases.

Infrastructure Receivers: Go to the link above then complete and submit the posted form to download the firmware.

Trimble Survey Team Promotion Reminder: "Turn Your GPS System into a GNSS System"

If you are a member of the Trimble Survey Team and you purchase a new Trimble R6 GPS Receiver by June 30, 2009, you will receive a complimentary upgrade to GLONASS. This offering benefits users by offering more satellite availability to their GPS system. Promotion details: Trimble Survey Team members must log on to the Trimble Survey Team website. Member clicks on the banner titled "Buy a Trimble R6 GPS System and Receive a GLONASS Upgrade". Trimble Survey Team member prints out "Turn your GPS System into a GNSS System" offering coupon complete with authorized promotion code. Member takes the printed offer coupon to his Trimble Survey distributor and upon the purchase of a Trimble R6 GPS Receiver; the distributor will provide the Trimble Survey Team member the GLONASS upgrade. Promotion eligibility requirements: Offer valid to Trimble Survey Team Customer members only. Trimble R6 GPS user purchase must be completed by June 30, 2009 Offer expires June 30, 2009. Offer is valid worldwide. Offer cannot be combined with any other promotions or offers

The Simple Life

KOREC is delighted to announce an order from Skanska for four Trimble R8 Rovers with TSC2 loggers, two Trimble S6 Robotic Total Stations with TCU loggers and a Trimble 5500 with TCU. These additions will supplement an already extensive range of Trimble survey instruments used on high profile construction projects in the South of England.

An experienced user of Trimble instruments, Skanska civil engineering chief land Surveyor Mark Lawton explains that it is Trimble's attention to detail that makes the difference on site. "We have 12 surveyors on our team and have seen vast improvements in the newer members simply because of the way our Trimble instruments, with on-board Survey Controller software, handle data. The easy ‘drag and drop' copying of our dxf and csv files between the PC and logger - with little or no editing - is a big plus, but perhaps the single most beneficial feature for us is the ‘style sheet' option which really saves time and allows us to perform complex calculations right in the field. Trimble's pre-designed style sheets are easily downloadable from the website and although we could create or customize our own, Trimble's would be hard to better. It isn't fancy and it isn't new but I now have complete confidence in our new starters simply because it is so easy to download a stake out report through style sheets. The end result is that we can incorporate our procedures on every device, they look professional and the QA people love it. Not only do style sheets take a world of paperwork away, but each day our processing time has been cut by 20 minutes and overall, our QA process and data preparation time reduced by 25%." Full Story Online

New Trimble R8 GNSS System Offers Major Advances in Trimble R-Track Technology for Complete System Efficiency

This years Trimble Dimensions event in Las Vegas was the perfect launch pad for their latest GPS Rover, the new R8 GNSS. Key features include:

• Advanced Trimble R-Track™ Technology – consistently delivers precise positioning performance in the most challenging GNSS conditions

• Unmatched tracking of GNSS satellite signals – more satellites and better reception keep you working throughout the day

• Superior performance in challenging RTK applications - Signal Prediction compensates for intermittent RTK signals, enabling extended operation after an interruption

• Capacity to track up to 44 satellites - supports a wide range of satellite signals, including GPS L2C and L5 and GLONASS L1/L2 signals

• Flexible system design - ultimate flexibility for rover or base operation

• Remote configuration and access - The Trimble R8 GNSS System can be teamed with the new Trimble Access Software (see our Trimble Access item in this issue), which enables data sharing and collaboration between field and office crews in a secure, Web-based environment.

The Mystery of Stonehenge

Undeterred by the heavy snow, early February saw KOREC’s Matthew Lock join the English Heritage team of Trevor Pearson, Peter Topping and David Field on-site in Wiltshire collecting data for a 1:1000 scale survey of the archaeological earthworks of Stonehenge and its immediate environs and a 1:2500 archaeological survey of the wider landscape.

“The R8 is put on top of the prism and the TSC2 talks to the VX radio and R8 via Bluetooth,” he explains. “SC connects to both instruments and I could then use the resection function to establish the location of my VX spatial station. The software prompts me to enter the name of the VX location, the height of the instrument and then the name of the first resection point. When this is done, SC tells me that it doesn’t exist and asks if I want to measure it with GNSS. SC then automatically switches to the R8 and measures the same pole location with GNSS. Therefore SC has stored measurements to the same resection point with both VX (currently unknown coordinates) and R8 GNSS (Ordnance Survey coordinates). I then repeated this process to create as many resection points as I needed (minimum 2) and the VX is located on the Ordnance Survey VRS grid without any physical ground markers being required – a vital benefit for the Stonehenge location. Once the VX is positioned, the photos and scanning are initiated and I was free to switch to the R8 GNSS and carry on surveying with that. Essentially, I am controlling and receiving data from two instruments at the same time. I believe that only Trimble offer this.” Although Matthew and the VX were able to pick out some ancient inscriptions on the stones and a carving of a dagger, the reason behind their construction looks likely to remain a mystery forever!

Full Story