Introduction

As civilization progress, starting with the ability to harness electricity and further more lighting and heating homes with it, they were inevitably met with the challenges of congestion from overhead power lines. What was the solution? Bury them under ground. Still many of construction projects today involves converting aerial or overhead utilities such and power and communication cables into underground systems where they are safely out of the ways of our busy and always moving lives. With one problem solved there rises yet another, the location of those utilities that were buried and out of sight. Aside from repairs having to be made from faulty and failed cables, their locations are also sought out when any type of excavation is to be perform simply for the sake of damage prevention and to minimize the risk of injury or bodily harm. With a new skillset service coming in at a huge demand, utility locating turned towards science and technology for assistance. Today a wide variety of locating machines running on a multitude of different frequencies of which are favorable depending on the type of dirt and material utilities are buried under. The most common method of finding utilities involves a machine with both a transmitter and receiver. The transmitter will be connected to an exposed portion of a utility that needs to be found using wires and clips that are design for that particular machine, of which will send a signal through that line or cable. The technician will then sweep around with the receiver until it can indicate to them where that signal that is sent from the transmitter, usually in the form of a distinct sound designed for that instrument.  After a signal is received, usually technicians will mark the location with paint, but sometimes flags are used when the ground is wet where painting can be challenging. This scenario is ideal and one where is not always the case while trying to find buried utilities. There are also utilities that are made of non conductive material such as plastic or glass(fiber optics) where when hooking your transmitter onto would prove futile because the nature of the material will not allow current to flow through. The skillset involved in order to be considered a good utility locator requires years of experience and training and learning to operate a wide variety of electronic instruments. It is also an advantage of one has the ability to problem solve and quickly troubleshoot. Technicians are required to have fond knowledge of each utility and the systems in place of which how they are created, harnessed, stored, and distributed. This knowledge with assist them in accurately and precisely finding their targeted utility in a variety of unpredictable environment and conditions. As long as humans have the need to dig or excavate, there will always be a demand for utility locating services.