Posted: 1/4/2010 7:43:09 AM EDT
| I am planning a hike in a few weeks and am ready to order my topo map of the area (1/24,000 scale). The website is giving me the option of Lat/Lon and UTM or MGRS. On the UTM or MGRS looks like the MGRS is military so not sure I would need that. Also would you get tics or grids for either/or. Thanks for the advice in advance! |
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MGRS is military.
Military Grid Reference System Depends on how you are navigating. You could get both...just kind of marks up the map slightly more with additional reference systems. It honestly comes down to personal preference and how you want to navigate. Which website are you ordering from? |
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I was under the impression you could get it with all three if you so desired...
Never mind. Just read the site that says choosing MGRS will override UTM. Knowing this now I would say go with the UTM and Lat/Long if you are not familiar with MGRS. MGRS is best to use with 1:25,000 and 1:50,000 resolution (due in part to the protractors used in the military) but can be used with 1:24000. However, I have no idea where you might obtain a protractor for 1:24,000 plotting with MGRS. I would suppose someone makes it, but finding it? So if you are unfamiliar with dealing with MGRS in land navigation, stick with standard Lat/Long and UTM. Most GPS devices come with this as a default anyway. ETA: In order to avoid confusion, pick one as the ticks and one as the grids. Less confusing if your Lat/Long is grids and your UTM is ticks or vice versa. Just remember which one is which. |
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Quoted: I'd do UTM with grids. I have my GPS set to UTM and the compass has a 1:24 UTM grid. Makes life simple. This. I order maps with UTM grids only. The lat/lon is excess info as I only use UTM. You could "get both"® if you want but I say pick a system your comfortable with and go with it. I prefer UTM over lat/lon as it's easier IMO. Whatever you go with, make sure you have a scale tool so you can plot/get accurate coords. to/from your map. Check out www.maptools.com They have tons to chose from. I like the "improved military" for UTM as it has mutiple scales, as well as a protractor in degrees (and mils if thats your thing) included. If you're using a GPS, obviously, set your coords. and map datum in your GPS unit to the same coords and datum as your map. |
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I like Lat/Lon.
I've never understood the attraction of UTM or any other grid system that sets an origin at some arbitrary point and references locations as northing and eastings from tha arbitrary point. And yes, I realize lat/lon also has "arbitrary" origin points, but any spot on the planet can easily be identified with a 3 digit number and 5 digit decimal, with no needing to know what Zone I'm in, etc. I just don't get the utility of grids. |
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Quoted:
Well, you know that a UTM grid is 1KM square. So it's easy to find locations/distances by looking at the coordinates. You can't do that with lat/long. Ahh. That makes sense. For my work, for instance, I know that 66 feet is .000181 degrees along a north south line, and .000226 degrees at 35North, and .000229 degrees at 38North. My usage of coords deals more with marking property corners, road intersections, plotting out surveys on my GIS, etc. If I want to measure distance I just whip out my trusty Silva Type 15, slap it down on the map, read the distance and convert to whatever scale the map's at. I rarely use my map to find out where I am, just where I'm going (as I already know where I am :). |