LuckyStriker
Bachelor Dog
GPS receivers are steadily becoming more commonplace and accepted by the general public.
Some of you hate them and some of you love them. Many of you don?t care about them or don?t understand what the big fuss is about.
Be that as it may, a potential problem has cropped up.
A GPS device displays your current position or distant waypoint as a set of co-ordinates called a grid reference. These co-ordinates are representative of an intersection of a Y and X axis on the Earth.
Before I continue; my apologies for such a long post but I thought I?d give as much info as I can without making it a bore.
What is the point of this poll you ask? Some of us use different grid references on our GPS devices. When we share co-ordinates on the forum and we don?t use the same grid references, the co-ordinates are nearly useless.
It has been suggested that we all should come to agree on one type of grid reference and co-ordinate structure. It will make it easier to find and share locations with other members.
I will try to explain the various types of co-ordinates to the best of my ability. Please let me know if I'm stating the obvious or if I?m completely wrong in my explanations!
The co-ordinates given below, with the exception of the first one, all have the same amount of characters (16) so they are all equally long. They are all for the same location (Kriges Pub). Some are less complicated than others though. I suggest you read the thread in the ?Gear and Equipment? section for the full story.
The ones mentioned above are the most popular and I suggest only they be used on the Wilddog site.
This poll is here to measure the acceptability of the various co-ordinate choices by us, the members.
Thanks for voting!
Some of you hate them and some of you love them. Many of you don?t care about them or don?t understand what the big fuss is about.
Be that as it may, a potential problem has cropped up.
A GPS device displays your current position or distant waypoint as a set of co-ordinates called a grid reference. These co-ordinates are representative of an intersection of a Y and X axis on the Earth.
Before I continue; my apologies for such a long post but I thought I?d give as much info as I can without making it a bore.
What is the point of this poll you ask? Some of us use different grid references on our GPS devices. When we share co-ordinates on the forum and we don?t use the same grid references, the co-ordinates are nearly useless.
It has been suggested that we all should come to agree on one type of grid reference and co-ordinate structure. It will make it easier to find and share locations with other members.
I will try to explain the various types of co-ordinates to the best of my ability. Please let me know if I'm stating the obvious or if I?m completely wrong in my explanations!
The co-ordinates given below, with the exception of the first one, all have the same amount of characters (16) so they are all equally long. They are all for the same location (Kriges Pub). Some are less complicated than others though. I suggest you read the thread in the ?Gear and Equipment? section for the full story.
- Degrees, minutes, seconds
Lat/Lon hddd�°mm?ss
Displayed on your GPS: S33 52 22 E18 38 37
Pronounced in speech: South 33degrees 52minutes 22seconds. East 18degrees 38minutes 37seconds
Written on paper: S33�° 52? 22? E18�° 38? 37?
This is the most basic set of co-ordinates taught to you at school and in the military. It will get you from one destination to the next but it lacks some accuracy. It will get you to a remote fuel station or farmhouse but it won?t take you to buried treasure. All paper maps and orthographical photos are referenced in this method and it therefore becomes easy to transfer co-ordinates from hard copies to your GPS. It is the type of numbers you work with using a good old compass. This system appears to be replaced nowadays by the less technical sets of co-ordinates lower down on my list
Degrees, minutes & decimal placed seconds
Lat/Lon hddd�°mm?ss.s
Displayed on your GPS: S33 52 22.0 E18 38 37.2
I won?t bother with the pronunciation or text because it should be obvious you merely have to add a point something seconds.
This method is essentially the same as the above. The extra decimal place gives a higher degree of accuracy, presumably to find an area roughly a metre or so in circumference.
Degrees & decimal placed minutes
Lat/Lon hddd�°mm.mmm?
Displayed on your GPS: S33 52.366 E18 38.621
Pronounced in speech: South 33degrees, 52 point 366 minutes. East 18degrees 38, point 621 minutes
Written on paper: S33�° 52.366? E18�° 38.621?
This method eliminates the seconds and substitutes it with three decimal places. The drawback is that converting hard copy co-ordinates (as on maps) to these decimal co-ordinates requires a calculator or a keen mind.
Decimal placed degrees
Lat/Lon hddd.ddddd�°
Displayed on your GPS: S33.87277 E18.64368
Pronounced in speech: South 33, point 87277 degrees. East 18, point 64363 degrees
Written on paper: S33.87277�° E18.64368�°
This method eliminates both the minutes and seconds but ads degrees in decimal places. It is arguably the easiest set of co-ordinates for the uninitiated to use. Even children can recite the numbers with little risk of error but it can be very tricky for users to calculate their position on a paper map.
South African grid
Displayed on your GPS: 19 Y0032968 X3749606
This method has recently been developed and I?m not sure it is applicable but since it has ?South Africa? in it, it is entered into the poll. The only place where this system really comes into its own is when you work with aerial photographs.
The ones mentioned above are the most popular and I suggest only they be used on the Wilddog site.
This poll is here to measure the acceptability of the various co-ordinate choices by us, the members.
Thanks for voting!
