I must admit to a fondness for the old technology - its easier to get lead in my pencil than fixing a GPS! It also comes with a rubber (eraser) which prevents mistakes. Consider the amount of batteries you have to carry these days. As for those aerials for the Trimble GPS's, not wonder they don't work in wooded areas - the aerials must get stuck in the trees! 

Sadly, the old dumpy levels and plane tables (alidades) are now antique tools available at premium prices. No doubt the luggable computers (Kaypros and the like) are about to become antiques as well.

On the positive side I was hoping I could go fairly paperless, has anyone else tried to juggle cameras, maps and recording sheets in high wind and had to go chasing site records down a hill? If I could only tick a few boxes, get a grid ref and a digital photo I could go back to the office and download everything into a report and not even think about it. 

HLA uses a spiffy Garmin etrex which seems to work as well as a Trimble (especially now that SA is turned off). The positive side is that you can use it to track your route, which if you are geographically embarrassed as I was on Thursday pm, you can plot where you have been. In my case turns out to be where I wanted to be (which begs the question of where the route markers were). This is very helpful when the map is out of date.

You should also check that the GPS supports the national mapping grids which some don't.

yours

Iain Stuart

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