ListenA Deep Dive into GPR Technology with Jan Francke, Co-Founder of Geolitix
Enhanced Scanning owner Forrest Sim interviews geophysicist Jan Francke of Geolitix.
Executive Summary
- The Blueprint of a 30-Year Career: Jan identifies as a Canadian of half-Dutch and half-Sri Lankan heritage who stumbled into geophysics during his first year of undergraduate studies in the late 1980s. Initially intending to study physics, he pivoted to geophysics after being enamored by a female professor who was exploring a brand-new, non-oil-related technology: ground-penetrating radar (GPR). Recognizing a massive uncrowded niche, Jan borrowed $20,000 from his mother in 1990 to buy his first analog system from Sensors & Software (then known as A³) and launched his company, International Ground Radar.
- The Early Western Canadian Oil Boom: Jan’s breakthrough occurred in the early 1990s when the Alberta environment minister banned the use of explosives to dig river trenches for oil pipelines. While companies pivoted to horizontal directional drilling (HDD), they frequently lost drill holes upon striking hidden riverbed sediments. Jan modified his low-frequency system (150 MHz and 25 MHz dipoles), attached them to Home Depot PVC pipes, and rowed across roaring rivers in a canoe. The resulting alluvial sediment mapping data was a game-changer, earning him up to $10,000 per river while still completing his undergraduate degree, which later scaled to international projects for major petroleum firms in the Amazon tributary of Ecuador.
- The Federal Banning and Lobbying of GPR: Jan pulls back the curtain on a critical historical event from the mid-1990s when the FAA and FCC threatened to completely ban GPR technology nationwide due to severe radio frequency (RF) airspace interference. Because GPR is fundamentally ultra-broadband—meaning a 500 MHz antenna actually shouts an unshielded bell curve from 200 MHz to 800 MHz across the spectrum—it was actively stepping on licensed property bandwidths and airport communication arrays. Major manufacturers like GSSI and Sensors & Software spent millions on Washington lobbyists to secure a compromise, which ultimately birthed current FCC and European ETSI mandates requiring all commercial GPRs to be strictly shielded, low-power, and operated within 1 meter (3 feet) of the ground.
- The Fallacy of Drone GPR Marketing: Jan strongly critiques the modern exponential trend of mounting GPR antennas onto aerial drones, labeling it as unprofessional, illegal, and a violation of physics. Legally, flying a drone GPR more than a meter off the ground openly violates strict FCC, ETSI, and Industry Canada (RSS 220) regulations. From a physics standpoint, raising an antenna off the ground causes the electromagnetic pulse to widen its aperture three times over, spreading the signal too thin and causing an 80% loss in ground penetration. While drone GPR has safe, valid applications for military unexploded ordnance (UXO) or landmine detection where soldiers cannot physically step, it is an entirely ineffective and over-hyped tool for commercial utility locating.
- Rejecting “Caveman” Spray Paint for Multi-Channel Arrays: Jan advises young entrepreneurs that the days of pushing a single-channel cart and spray-painting lines on the asphalt are dead. To separate from low-level competition, modern firms must adopt advanced multi-channel array systems that capture dense 3D datasets to produce high-end digital map files. He views the GPR market as ripe for disruption by newcomers who are agile enough to adopt array computing workflows while legacy service providers remain sluggishly tied to antiquated single-channel models.
- The Next Extraplanetary Frontier: Shifting away from physical jungles and civil wars, Jan now develops custom, hyper-specialized radar systems from a desk. His current cutting-edge projects include designing rover-based, low-frequency GPR arrays for the international Artemis Lunar Mission to the Moon’s South Pole. Because the lunar surface is perfectly optimized for radar energy propagation, these rovers will be deployed to actively map out subsurface water ice reserves (H2O) and identify giant basaltic lava tubes to serve as safe underground habitats for future human astronauts before colonizing Mars.
About Enhanced Scanning
A lack of information about what lies beneath a project site can create unnecessary risks for workers, equipment, and existing infrastructure. Enhanced Scanning helps address that uncertainty by providing professional subsurface locating services for the construction, engineering, and scientific communities. The company is committed to advancing safer locating practices through the combination of modern technology and comprehensive technician training. Enhanced Scanning owner Forrest Sim is an experienced industry leader who regularly speaks at national industry events, where he shares his knowledge of utility locating, concrete scanning, and other subsurface investigation techniques.
Enhanced Scanning uses a variety of non-destructive tools to investigate conditions below the surface. These include ground penetrating radar (GPR), electromagnetic (EM) and electromagnetic induction (EMI) locators, magnetometers, push cameras, and pulse wave generators. The availability of multiple technologies allows technicians to approach each investigation based on the specific requirements of the site. Rather than disturbing the area to determine what is present, these tools provide ways to gather important information while preserving the existing conditions.
Through these locating methods, Enhanced Scanning can identify underground utility lines, locate post-tensioned cables within concrete slabs, and detect changes in soil structure. The information can help customers identify potential hazards and understand the conditions they will encounter before beginning work. That knowledge allows contractors, engineers, and other professionals to make more informed decisions about excavation, drilling, cutting, and other project activities, reducing the potential for unexpected problems and helping create a safer work environment.
