Greetings all!
I am writing to inquire if anyone else within the field of
archaeology is using a Sensors and Software Ground Penetrating Radar and
Pulse Ekko Software. We, at the Lost Towns Project have been leasing one
for several months thanks to a grant. Sadly, training for the radar and
its software was cut out of the budget at the last minute and we have
been learning from the mannual and trial and error. The good news is that
we have learned alot about geophysical surveys; soil conditions,
batteries, signatures, batteries, MHz, nanoteslas, velocity and all of
physics 101, oh, and yes, batteries. We have a few questions regarding
data processing and imaging and are hoping to contact, and possibly
visit, other archaeologists who are using this technology.
In our current set up, the radar sled with either a 900 or 450
MHz antenna is connected to a laptop that allows us to receive real time
radar results as the sled is dragged over the site grid. The real time
results enable us to pinflag areas on the transect where anomalies were
present. These files are saved and can be printed on any kind of printer
later in the lab. We usually don't print them out since it could take 20
sheets of paper to print an 80 foot transect at a reasonable scale. We
are seeking advice on how to A) encorporate the radar data with our other
maps that are in GIS (essentially the ability to do overlays) and
B)processing the data into a meaningful image that would provide a site
wide image. Presently we can only view one transect at a time. For
example, when we use our magnetometer, we are able to process the data in
SURFER which provides us with a contour map of the survey area. Contour
maps are slightly problematic in and of themselves since they interpolate
from transect to transect, but they at least provide a relational map of
the site which is what we hope to achieve with the radar. We have a few
more techincal questions as well such as whether the 450 and the 900 MHz
antennas are the right frequency for the clay we are surveying in, and
whether there are ways within the software to accentuate radar 'hits'.
Thanks for your help!
Liz West
The Lost Towns Project
Annapolis, MD
410-222-7441
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