GPS

aj said:

If a gps is set to grid in the settings,does the reading of the grid
ref from the gps put you in the right place on the map ?

Should do, yes, but make sure the datum /and/ format are both set to
British/OS grid.

Note you'll generally get a 10 figure grid ref rather than the 6 figure
ones most people are used to (this gives the nearest meter square,
rather than 100m square), so if it says 01234 56789 as the reference
what you probably want is 012 567.

HTH, Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net [email hidden] http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

"aj" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

If a gps is set to grid in the settings,does the reading of the grid
ref from the gps put you in the right place on the map ?

Deep philosophical question that one...should do, if you
- got the "set to grid" right - e.g. OS GB not, for example, Spanish
grid...
- The merkins havnae started another war and switched on the "confuse
every *****r that has purchased a GPS" feature....
- you read it correctly
- you hold the map the right way up (not strictly necessary) and can
work out grid refs....

Supplementary ;;;

#1 knowing where you are "in the right place on the map" - does that
tell you where to go??
#2 Are you comfortable enough with navigation to know when the
equipment/one's own stupidity is leading you astray...

The wife, who lives in Ascot, frequently see sees puzzled drivers rushing up
'n down her cul-de-sac not being able to find the road their "hi-tech" GPS
is telling them to follow.. after driving past a few "dead end" road
signs...

The message <[email hidden]>
from aj <[email hidden]> contains these words:

Quoted message said:

If a gps is set to grid in the settings,does the reading of the grid
ref from the gps put you in the right place on the map ?

You give no indication of where you are or what your gps is. That
information might be crucial.

In the Britain early Garmins had separate settings for British grid and
OSGB datum so it was relatively easy to stay with wgs84 and have (IIRC)
an offset of about 120 yards. The double choice was eliminated in later
Garmins so what you see is where you are on the map (provided you have
picked the right grid).

I have no idea how other manufacturers approached the problem.

--
Roger Chapman
Nearest Marilyn still to be visited - Great Orme.
89 miles as the crow flies,
considerably more as the walker drives.

Rab C Nesbitt said:

#1 knowing where you are "in the right place on the map" - does
that tell you where to go??

It doesn't have to. Presumably you already know that.

If you don't know where you want to go then you're probably at home watching
TV. ;-)

Quoted message said:

The wife, who lives in Ascot, frequently see sees puzzled drivers
rushing up 'n down her cul-de-sac not being able to find the road
their "hi-tech" GPS is telling them to follow.. after driving past a
few "dead end" road signs...

But is it their GPS that's telling them, or is it their own fault for
putting in a waypoint and trying to follow a simple GOTO? Assuming they have
a car GPS that calculates road routes, there could be some kind of error in
the map data, if this is a common occurence in your location. I've noticed
on my GPS mapping that sometimes rough tracks are shown as roads, so it
might advise you to drive a route which isn't sensible for a normal car. The
data could also be out of date, if roads have since been blocked off.

Another possible cause is simply bad reception. Inside a car surrounded by
high buildings is not the best place to get good reception with a GPS.
There's also the possibility of signal path errors caused by reflections off
buildings.

Paul
--
http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk/
http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk/weblog/

aj said:

If a gps is set to grid in the settings,does the reading of the grid
ref from the gps put you in the right place on the map ?

IF you are using the same mapping grid and datum for both GPS and map,
then yes.