Surveyors desire to provide adequate site control that meets a project’s requirements. Surveyors often contemplate which GNSS technique and methodology is appropriate. The choice is between Real Time Kinematic (RTK) and Rapid Static (RS) GNSS surveys. This leaves the surveyor with several questions to be answered; 1) Which method will satisfy the project’s requirements? 2) How many GNSS receivers and antennas should I use if RS is utilized? 3) How long should I occupy a point using RTK and/or RS? 4) How many times should I occupy a point using RTK and/or RS? 5) What is professional, reasonable, & economic? An assessment of the two GNSS survey methods is needed to determine what satisfies the professional surveyor’s needs.

This paper studies various collections of survey data that can provide valuable insight. The objective is to establish two points that can be adequately utilized as site control. Comparisons are made between RTK surveys and RS surveys measured using iMAX network methodology. RS surveys are performed that measure both points at the same time and each point individually. This demonstrates the use of a traditional GNSS closed loop survey compared to a GNSS survey that uses terrestrial measurements to close the loop. The latter is sometimes referred to as a “Poor Surveyor’s Site Control Survey” because of the use of only one GNSS receiver instead of two. Conclusions and recommendations are made by observing the results of this study.