MasonDixonMding
Elite Member
Has anyone used ground penetrating radar to find the outhouse and or dump.
Ground penetrating radar
- Thread starter MasonDixonMding
- Start date
Bioheat1969
Senior Member
That sounds like an expensive venture, I have not, but will be watching to see what others think. Just a quick Google search shows $300.00/hr in my area.
MasonDixonMding
Elite Member
A guy in my club had one. It was a friend of his. We didn’t know quite how to use it. Tried it in the yard. I think it could work well? Was wondering if any one had used one?
Have a hunting buddy that got one last year used for a good price. But hasn't had much luck with it yet. Problem is if you hunt a lot of overgrown hous sites you can't drag that thing through that stuff. So that eliminates a lot of sites that have potential right there. So really open cut fields and lawns.
hoser
Forum Supporter
It's been stated before to look for depressions that would be about the size of a privy or a dump. The people would have covered them up and smoothed out the ground, but over time things settle, rot, or just rust away allowing the ground to settle even more giving away the location of dump or outhouse. I have watched several people here search yards with a long steel T handle probe. They are about 3/8 - 1/2" dia. and some are about eight feet long. By golly I have seen them find these places too. The only drawback for me is now that you found it at about six or seven feet you gotta dig to get at it.
Naw, I stick to finding things a lot closer to the surface. 
Naw, I stick to finding things a lot closer to the surface. 
randy
Forum Supporter
I was on a team led by a guy who claimed to have a viable design for GPR in a consumer level metal detecting like machine. He claimed to have built a prototype and was looking for production when he passed away. I never saw the design, not sure if anyone else did either. I'm a "believe it when I see it guy", so who knows? I personally always thought sonar/ultrasound might be a better bet, but I'm not smart enough to know which frequencies work best. I do know ultrasound is pretty amazing at short range anyway.
The bottom line, IMHO anyway, is that VLF is dead. I'm doing just as well with my ancient E-Trac as all these new machines are doing. I'm sure the new machines are better, but only on the margin. All they seem to be doing is tweaking around the edges and coming up with new buzzwords and new ways to look at old returns with faster processors and better software, but no new game changing technology.
The next paradigm will come from out of the blue, IMHO, either GPR, sonar, or something we haven't thought of yet. I know people are working on this stuff, and have been for years. Perhaps the fact that it hasn't come yet suggests that it is more difficult or costly in practice that I think it is.
As for using GPR to find depressions, LIDAR works pretty well for that purpose now, and LIDAR returns and software to read them are all available in the public domain for free. You would be amazed at what you can see on LIDAR, like old roads and stuff, that you simply can't see in the field, or at least not see easily without an old map.
The bottom line, IMHO anyway, is that VLF is dead. I'm doing just as well with my ancient E-Trac as all these new machines are doing. I'm sure the new machines are better, but only on the margin. All they seem to be doing is tweaking around the edges and coming up with new buzzwords and new ways to look at old returns with faster processors and better software, but no new game changing technology.
The next paradigm will come from out of the blue, IMHO, either GPR, sonar, or something we haven't thought of yet. I know people are working on this stuff, and have been for years. Perhaps the fact that it hasn't come yet suggests that it is more difficult or costly in practice that I think it is.
As for using GPR to find depressions, LIDAR works pretty well for that purpose now, and LIDAR returns and software to read them are all available in the public domain for free. You would be amazed at what you can see on LIDAR, like old roads and stuff, that you simply can't see in the field, or at least not see easily without an old map.
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