Network Update 

As we pass the end of another growth year for the Network, we wanted to give everyone a short update.

1. We have continued to expand the network coverage area greatly. We are approaching 70 reference stations that are on line. There are additional reference stations in the works for early 2008. The DFW island will more than double its coverage area the 1st quarter of 08.
2. The Network now has over 330 active members.
3. We have upgraded our software to handle 150 users at one time. We expect to have to increase this to 200 users sometime in 2008.
4. On December 1, the RTCM corrections were activated in all islands.
5. We are moving the network web site to a new hosting company to allow us better update capabilities in the future. The site name (txrtk.com) will not change.
6. The annual membership renewal fees were mailed out in December. Total billing was almost $44,000. We believe this along with at least 3 additional sales of memberships per month, gives us the ability to have funds available to cover operating costs and upgrading capabilities without the need for a cost sharing fee in 2008. This will be the 2nd year without this fee.
7. The establishment of an island in Oklahoma City has been accomplished and the VRS corrections were activated in October.

As you can see, 2007 was another good year, but we have some plans for 2008 that we expect will make it an even better year.

Thank you for your continued support. As always, we welcome your comments and suggestions. Remember, this is your network.

Michael Hefer

September 25, 2007

You are invited to attend our second annual RTK Cooperative Network Users Group meeting during the TSPS Annual Convention. The meeting will be held at the Sheraton Arlington Hotel at 4:00 to 6:00 pm on Thursday, October 11th. Refreshments will be served.

August 1, 2007

The Texas RTK Cooperative Network has now activated its 300th membership. This network is now not only the largest privately owned Trimble VRS network in the world, we believe the network now also has the largest active user base in the world. The Texas survey community has become the world leader in implementation of technology into surveying.

May 11, 2007

We have good news; The acceptance of the network keeps growing and we now have over 250 members. This continuing increase in the number of members now allows Western Data Systems to announce the THERE WILL BE NO COST SHARING BILLED IN 2007. We hope you agree that this makes the membership in the network a true bargain.

April 23, 2007

Another station has been added to Austin/San Antonio network in Lampasas. This is the 18th station in the San Antonio/Austin network and provides additional coverage in the northwest quadrant of the network. 

Four additional stations have been added to the Houston network for a total of eleven. The stations were installed in Silsbee, Galveston and Nederland and Wharton, extending coverage in the southeast, southwest, and northeast quadrants of the network.

February 12, 2007

Another station has been added to Austin/San Antonio network. This station is located at the Alcoa Sandow Mine and provides additional coverage in the northeast quadrant of the network.

Additionally WDS has installed a reference station at it's Edmond, Oklahoma office. This station is available for single base RTK users until a full network is completed in the Oklahoma City area.

January 15, 2007

We are proud to announce that the Texas Cooperative RTK Network now has over 200 active members. This enables the network to continue to reduce costs to each member.

The number of reference stations also continues to grow. There are presently 53 active reference stations in the network with another 7 in the implementation stage. Of the present reference stations 14 of them are Trimble NetR5 Receivers with GLONASS capabilities. The additional 7 reference stations that are being added will also be GLONASS capable. The ability to announce GLONASS for the network will become a reality very soon.

January 10, 2007

Two new stations (SCTK, SCTT) have been added to the Austin/San Antonio network which brings the total to 16 stations.

December 4, 2006

A new station (HJCT), Jones and Carter has been added to the Houston network and is fully incorporated into the nework solution. Additionally three new stations should be incorporated into the Austin/San Antonio network in the near future.

November 22, 2006

A new station (SCOA), City of Austin has been added to the Austin/San Antonio network and is fully incorporated into the nework solution.

November 6, 2006

Station HROD in the Houston network was re-monumented over the weekend. The station is now approximately 4 feet higher than the existing published coordinate. An approximate coordinate will be uploaded until enough data is logged to establish a final coordinate.

October 30, 2006

Chance Alford, the RTK Network Manager, has left WDS to pursue other interests. John Wardlow has taken over his duties as the RTK Network manager and can be contacted here at the Houston office. Please see the contacts page for a link to John's email address. Welcome aboard John, and best of luck in your future endeavors Chance.

October 24, 2006

There have been four new stations added in the past 2 months. One in the El Paso network, one in the Dallas-Ft. Worth network and two in the Valley network. Additionally, two more stations are planned for the San Antonio/Austion network which should be operational before the end of 2006.

August 21, 2006

The coordinate readjustments are complete on all operating networks. Please see the Reference Station page for the new coordinates of all stations. Additionally, the El Paso, Corpus Christi and Lower Valley networks are now operational for VRS solutions.

July 17, 2006

The VRS networks will be unavailable for use from 8:00 p.m. Friday August 18th through 6:00 a.m. on Monday August 21st. All operating islands will network coordinates readjusted during that weekend to improve the network coordinate solutions. Due to subsidence and other minor variations in the physical reference stations it is necessary for WDS to readjust the coordinates to provide the "best fit" solution for each island.

IMPORTANT: All user who are currently operating on projects that contain a site calibration will have to redo their site calibration on Monday the 21st, as the slight change in reference station coordinates from the readjustment will change previous calibration results.

March 13, 2006

Two additional stations have been added to the Rio Grande Valley area, for a total of six stations. The Valley network is anticipated to be operational and providing VRS solutions by the end of March.

February 14, 2006

Western Data Systems is announcing a major expansion in Dallas/Ft. Worth area. There is now an active reference station in Kaufman, Texas. This additional station now provides VRS coverage to almost the entire Dallas/Ft. Worth metroplex. Please see maps for full coverage.

January 1, 2006

With the activation of the Texas RTK Cooperative Network, cost sharing and membership renewal billing dates have been set.

The first cost sharing billing will be July 1, 2006.

All memberships that were active prior to December 1, 2005 will have an anniversary date of December 1, 2005. All memberships that are activated after 12/1/2005 will have an anniversary date that will coincide with the actual activation date.

December 1, 2005

As of December 1, 2005 Western Data Systems has officially activated the Texas RTK Cooperative Network. Houston, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Austin and San Antonio now have access to VRS solutions. El Paso, Corpus Christi and the Valley have access to single base station solutions via the network.

October 3, 2005

All stations are now operational. HCCO is still experiencing periodic dropouts, but less frequently than last week.

Notice: September 26, 2005  !!!!!
Due to Hurricane Rita and the subsequent rolling brown-outs in the surrounding areas of Houston we are still experiencing stations dropping out of the solution. Currently HCCO and HJKB are both offline. We expect these brown-outs to cease by end of the week. Please contact Ed Meche at 281-987-1815 with any questions.

Notice: September 21, 2005  !!!!!

Due to Hurricane Rita several base station owners have plans to take down their antennas in the next 24 hours. Please note that we will have interruptions in service due to these stations being offline.

HCCO, Chambers County removed their antenna at 9:00 am, 9/21/05.

July 6, 2005

Final coordinates were established for the twelve stations in the Austin/San Antonio network and the network went live on the morning of July 6th. This now provides three operational network islands covering Dallas, Houston, Austin and San Antonio, or 11,413 square miles of VRS coverage in three major metropolitan areas.

June 27, 2005

All Austin/San Antonio stations will have final coordinates and go live by July 1. Dallas, Houston and Austin/San Antonio will then all provide VRS coverage for those metropolitan areas. During the month of July, with a target of July 30, all members will be issued new passwords for access to the RTK Network. All owners and members must have a completed membership contract on file by July 30, or their access will be disabled. The contract may be downloaded from the members page on this web site, or can be obtained by sending an email to wds@westerndatasystems.com.

June 6, 2005

With the addition of three more reference stations in the San Antonio/Austin area it is anticipated that the Austin/San Antonio network will go live July 1. The Dallas network now includes the ninth station and is fully operational.  The Houston network is operational with seven reference stations.

May 9, 2005

The 9th station was installed in the Dallas network and is currently logging data for processing the final coordinate for inclusion to the network. Houston now has seven operating stations with the final coordinates to be established for station seven this week. This now brings the total to 38 stations operating in the state of Texas.

April 25, 2005

There are now 37 operating base stations in Texas. The Houston network now has six operating stations, with the seventh coming on line this week. The network is going live this week for testing, and will be on line the week of May 1 for member use.

The Dallas network now has 8 operating stations. The McKinney station is currently logging data to be added to the network solution, and is expected to be included in the network by the first week of May.

Three additional sites have been selected to complete the San Antonio/Austin network. It is anticipated that these should be installed in the next couple of weeks, and the San Antonio/Austin network should be live by the end of May.

February 14, 2005

There are now 34 operating base stations in Texas. Progress is being made on densification of the Houston and Austin/San Antonio networks. It is anticipated that the additional stations required for both will be installed by end of February. Data processing and testing should be completed by early March, and both networks should go live by mid-March.

Raw data for post processing purposes will soon be available for all network members. Rods Surveying of Houston will be hosting an FTP site for storing and download of the data. Data will be stored for all network reference stations in Texas. Please watch this page for news on when this service becomes available.

January 9, 2005 (Cost Sharing)

We wanted to clarify two areas where there seems to have been some confusion.

First, everyone should understand that all members (Reference Station owners and non-owners) will participate in cost sharing. We have always said the first billing will not be until at least six months after network is active. This means the date the four major metro areas are activated. As it looks now, this means the first billing will not be until the third quarter of 2005.

Second, due to some concern about the unknown (total number of members at time of billing), Western Data Systems has committed to the members that the billing amount will not exceed the original Pro-Forma estimates, even if this means WDS will not be able to recapture all its original expenses. In short, we do not know what the actual figure will be, but we do know it will not exceed $1,235 per membership after 6 months and $956 per membership the following year.

December 12, 2004 (30th Reference Station)

Western Data Systems announces the 30th active Reference Station in Texas, making it by far the largest privately owned network in the US.

October 8, 2004 (Dallas / Fort Worth area is activated)

At the Texas Society of Professional Surveyors conference in San Antonio, Western Data Systems announces that 7 Reference Stations in Dallas / Fort Worth are now active. Trimble RTKNet software will be activated on October twelfth allowing members to begin obtaining VRS solutions in the Dallas / Fort Worth area.

August 24, 2004 (Testing Begins)

Western Data Systems announces it has begun testing the Networks in Houston and Dallas / Fort Worth. Due to the geography of the area, it has been determined that to combine both Austin and San Antonio into one network is easier than the establishment of separate foundations.

April 15, 2004 (1st 4 Reference Stations Established)

Western Data Systems has established the first four Reference Stations in Texas, one each in our offices in Houston, Dallas, San Antonio and Austin.

January 23, 2004 (RTK Network to Become Reality)

Western Data Systems announces it will begin the creation of a Texas RTK Network. The Network will have its foundation in the 4 major metropolitan areas of Texas and spreading outward from there. It will eventually cover all areas of Texas that have cellular data capabilities.