The present paper has dealt with the principle of transient state Rayleigh wave elploration, and analysed various factors affecting transient state Rayleigh wave exploration and the datacollecting technique tEat should be adopted. With practical examples. the paper Las tentatively probed into the effects of several sorts of data-processing upon frequency dispersion curve calculation.and the influence of evaluating phase deviation by mutual spectral method upon the precision of surface wave frequency dispersion curve calculation. Finally, characteristics of three sorts of anomalies that appear in the frequency dispersion curve and the causes for their formation are discussed.