Which type of coordinates do you use?
- Thread starter axlesandantennas
- Start date
greg.potter
Adventurer
I am comfortable using Lat/Long or UTM. I prefer UTM from the perspective that it provide a N/S E/W offset in meters between your current position and a waypoint on the map. This can be particularly useful in marginal visibility situations - think skiing across a glacier in a white-out. The only real grief that I have run into is the difference between geodetic datum references between mapping systems - think the way the skin is peeled off the orange and flattened out on a table, where the earth is the orange. In North America you run into NAD27, NAD83 and WGS84. NAD83 and WGS84 are very close to being the same. In Europe every country seems to have had there own standard and while world-wide every seems to be moving toward WGS84 you can run into some "interesting" navigational challenges near borders in poor visibility conditions trying to reference old-ish guide book references, particularly if the geodetic datum reference is not explicitly noted. But keeping it all in context - a first world problem!
axlesandantennas
Approved Vendor
Good point about the world wide datums. I'm not a world traveler anymore, but when I am setting up GPS units, I'm always amazed to see just how many reference types there are. I guess the countries operate the way our individual states do with State Plane. Heck, some states have several systems, depending on how "tall" north to south they are.
Martinjmpr
Wiffleball Batter
I used MGRS/UTM exclusively in the military but for my civilian travels, lat/long with decimal degrees seems to be the default of most applications. Some maps show UTM but ALL maps show lat/long so that's what I go with.
Besides that, I'm not calling in an air strike, so for me, generally, degrees and minutes will get me "close enough" to where I need to be.
Besides that, I'm not calling in an air strike, so for me, generally, degrees and minutes will get me "close enough" to where I need to be.
axlesandantennas
Approved Vendor
In 1996, I bought my first Garmin: GPS38. I was in the Marines at the time and the PLGR units were scarce and only the commissioned seem to get them anyway. So I bought the 38 on a PFC budget (which was very expensive at the time). Unfortunately, Garmin was not equipping GPS with MGRS yet, and I did not know that MRGR and UTM were essentially the same. I did figure out how to make it work by setting the start location when we got to our stepping off point and then following direction and distance and by also loading other points by marking az/distance, but the senior NCOs in my platoon saw no value in it and I was not allowed to use it.I used MGRS/UTM exclusively in the military but for my civilian travels, lat/long with decimal degrees seems to be the default of most applications. Some maps show UTM but ALL maps show lat/long so that's what I go with.
Besides that, I'm not calling in an air strike, so for me, generally, degrees and minutes will get me "close enough" to where I need to be.
axlesandantennas
Approved Vendor
Never heard of what three words. Interesting concept.
Paddler Ed
Adventurer
I use decimal degrees and What3Words as well
Even the emergency app here in Australia uses both now, in part because it's much easier to get the 3 words out when the proverbial is hitting the fan than the lat/lon.
Even the emergency app here in Australia uses both now, in part because it's much easier to get the 3 words out when the proverbial is hitting the fan than the lat/lon.
axlesandantennas
Approved Vendor
I use decimal degrees and What3Words as well
Even the emergency app here in Australia uses both now, in part because it's much easier to get the 3 words out when the proverbial is hitting the fan than the lat/lon.
Looks like W3W is really only good on a electronic device? Since each 3words is for a 3 meter grid, placing this on a map would be very difficult for anything other than a very large scale map. So for a command center type of opperation, you would need to have a rather large screen mounted.
And not to confuse the concept, but I wonder if a "major grouping" identifier would be beneficial. Perhaps every 10 Km2, the area would be called "Alpha" or whatever. This way you would say Alpha Fox.dog.cup or something. This way, if you were having to cover a large distance, you could get your bearings by looking at where you are, zoom out, and then see where the other "major" block is. This is kind of like the Maidenhead grid square system.
I use decimal degrees and What3Words as well
Even the emergency app here in Australia uses both now, in part because it's much easier to get the 3 words out when the proverbial is hitting the fan than the lat/lon.
Awesome to see that W3W is being used on emergency apps in Australia.
I was actually being a little sarcastic when I mentioned it because of the need to tie it to a device. And the weakness that it's hard to actually place one's self or figure out navigation.
I know that 33 6.7' is south of 33 7', but I don't know that moose.football.coffee is west of wombat.dollar.pen unless I have the app.
But -- I do think it's really cool for the intended purpose. If delivery services here ever start using it, I'll probably have all of my packages placed at my side gate instead of my front door to reduce the likelihood of theft.
Heresy!! Banana all day long.
What three words does make it difficult to determine a compass bearing from My Fat Ass to Your Beer Fridge.
EU Garmins and guides from what i've seen use WGS84 but others as options in the devices.
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axlesandantennas
Approved Vendor
Yeah, I've been thinking of W3W all weekend and I cannot find a practical use for it outside of "you need to go here" and basically must need a smart phone. I like the concept for SAR, but if you don't have it pre-loaded on the lost persons phone, then you are kind of SOL.
And most modern GPS units have much more than just WGS84 datum built in, not to mention many types of coordinate systems.
pluton
Adventurer
W3W seems a lot like Google Plus coordinates; Only machine generated and machine readable. No good if you don't have their machine.
