[MRCA] latitude/longitude

[J.Gordon Beattie, Jr., W2TTT]

I was raised on a DMS for mapping, but I also was instructed in the military
grid system of 1000m squares courtesy of JROTC and a US Army TM that I can't
recall, though I do remember that it had a pull out topo map of Ft. Benning.


Honestly today, I really prefer degrees and decimal degrees, but I also have
had to deal with degrees, minutes and decimal minutes, so I agree that we
should also start with DMS and then learn to interpolate in your head to
whatever other system you might need.

Having said that, I would strongly recommend that you work out with other
agencies and groups to align (I resisted the use of the word, "coordinate"
here.) on one system of units and to make sure that folks have their maps,
GPS and their heads on the same page.  You fight as you train, so train as
you fight.

Thanks & 73,
Gordon Beattie, W2TTT
201.314.6964

-----Original Message-----
From: mrca-bounces at mailman.qth.net [mailto:mrca-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On
Behalf Of B. Smith
Sent: Sunday, December 01, 2013 3:46 AM
To: mrca at mailman.qth.net
Subject: Re: [MRCA] latitude/longitude

First I would master Degrees- Minutes and Seconds,
once you have that under your belt the rest will make sense.  Most 
simple charts, highway maps, TOPO charts  that you can purchase will 
have the even degree Latitude and Longitude  marked usually with a small 
"tick" mark. You will have to draw a line on most simple charts  from 
"tick" mark to "tick" mark. You have to look carefully, then you have to 
divide it up by 60 etc.

Having been on many State and Local  emergency exercises  I can safely 
state that most emergency personnel have no idea how to look at a map 
and extract the Lat and Long. And I assure you that 95 and  percent of 
ham populace has no idea. Up the creek without a paddle.

And what is really sad is most Airline crews  and Corporate crews have 
not idea of what they are inputting into those black boxes.

Degrees , Minutes, Seconds is how it all started, and is the basis for 
our mapping,  grasp the orginal concept and then you will be able to 
move on and convert and interpolate, but most important of all is to 
state in clear English what your are transmitting.

Z

On 11/30/2013 10:08 PM, Al Klase wrote:
> Hi Ron,
>
> I was afraid of something like that.  There is an interesting 
> discussion here: http://www.maptools.com/tutorials/lat_lon/formats

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