Basic Terrain Plot, GPS & CSA
A question emailed to me recently raised a useful point, which I thought would be useful to mention. By using a GPS receiver to trace the route along which test mesaurements are taken in a geographical area, would that reduce the need for terrain and clutter maps? The answer is absolutely not. Given the nature and purpose of a GPS receiver it does not and could not replace terrain and clutter maps. The purpose of the latter have an entirely different function to perform for cell site analysis (CSA) and evidence.
There is a considerable body of material and further discussion I could add about information and inferences about terrain plots (which is covered in the cell site analysis (CSA) course material), but I do not wish to give the impression, nor do I have the intention, of building a case against the use of GPS receivers. A GPS receiver is not a redundant tool. It is, though, only one very useful tool of many useful tools that are needed for cell site analysis (CSA). GPS should not be considered the tool that is capable of replacing other knowledge-based sources or test information gathering tools. The latter are as equally required for cell site analysis, and, in some instances, even more so.
If you need to know more, I have put more detail here
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