Frequent surveys of seven trilateration networks in southern California over the interval 1973--1980 suggest that a regional increment in strain may have occurred in 1978--1979. Prior to 1978 and after late 1979 the strain accumulation has been predominantly a uniaxial north-south compression. This secular trend was interrupted sometime in 1978-1979 by an increment in both north-south and east-west extension in five of the seven networks. The onset of this change appears to have occurred first in the networks farthest south. The changes occurred without any unusual seismicity within the networks, but the overall seismicity in southern California was unusually low prior to and has been unusually high since the occurrence. The average principal strain rates for the seven networks in the 1973--1980 interval are 0.17 μstrain/yr north-south contraction and 0.08 μstrain/yr east-west extension. Although the observed increment in strain could be related to unidentifed systematic error in the measuring system, a careful review of the measurements and comparison with three other measuring systems reveal no appreciable cumulative systematic error.