[Rhodes22-list] GPS confusion

[Joseph Hadzima]

Here is a snip from another sailing list.  I thought it
would make good reference for the archives :-)

happy piloting!



----------begin included message:

OK I must admit I am really confused.

For the past year I have been learning the ins and outs of
navigating with a GPS. A while ago I started noticing
discrepancies between coordinates indicated on charts, what
my GPS said and what I would find listed as coordinates on
various sources on the internet.

After much reading on the internet and in a couple of
navigation books I have I determined that there are pretty
much 3 systems in use.

1) DD MM' ss" Degrees Minutes Seconds (what I find on
charts I think)

2) DD MM.mmm Degrees Minutes Decimal Minutes (what my GPS
normally says)

3) DD.ddddd Degrees and Decimal Degrees (What I find on
some websites like NOAA)

However it is not always easy to tell which is which when
reading them from a source.



HADZ (a.k.a. joe)

"Did you know...that when you walk past a flower, whether it be in
somebody's garden or on a vacant hillside, the flower will always
smile at you. The most polite way to respond, I've been told, is
to cheerfully return the smile."
--Ron Atchison