What does this mean in GPS language??

[NtheSeaOrSky 0]

N52*40'42"E
N30*16'19"E

the * is just a dot

These are the labels on the map and I am going to try to use the GPS to locate areas on those lines.

Life is not fair and there are no guarantees...

[MikeForsythe 0]

They are the Latitude and Longitude.

It is the southwest side of the city of Hubicy in the country of Belarus.

Time and pressure will always show you who a person really is!

[PhreeZone 20]

I think you need the second set of numbers for each. The N is a Latitude cord, but you don't have the matching Longitude. All this will tell you is how far North you need to go from the equator, but not where left or right to spin the globe.

52 North is in upper Canada. 52 40.42N* 30 16.19E is in Belarus and 52 40.42N* 30 16.19W is middle of the Atlantic. On the other hand 30 16.19N 52 40.42E is in Iran and 30 16.19N 52 40.42W once again in the middle of the Atlantic.

I think you need to provide the full cords.

Yesterday is history
And tomorrow is a mystery

Parachutemanuals.com

[chuckbrown 0]

Unless I'm being particularly dense about your question, those are the latitude and longitude coordinates.

52-40-42n/30-16-19e looks like its in Russia.

http://www.fourmilab.ch/cgi-bin/uncgi/Earth?imgsize=320&opt=-l&lat=52.7111&ns=North&lon=329.728&ew=West&alt=31421&img=learth.evif

[dustin19d 0]

Lat/Long confuses me, MGRS is so much easier to deal with using WGS 84 Datum. But of course you need a MGRS map.

[NtheSeaOrSky 0]

they are actually labels on lines connecting two points on a map, now i have found the two points, but they are so far apart I need to know how to 'follow the line' with my GPS cause they are not anywhere in site of each other

The string of numbers means zip to me other than the N and the E are relative directions.

Now before you jump on me about operating the GPS it is ANCIENT and a pain in the ass, so I am trying to use the 2D compass feature but with out knowing what the heck those numbers mean, I am stuck

Did I mention there are tons of briars

Life is not fair and there are no guarantees...

[PhreeZone 20]

We need the rest of the figures.

There should be a N point and a W point. 52 and 30 degrees are only about 2000 miles apart so I'm sure there are briars at some point between them

Yesterday is history
And tomorrow is a mystery

Parachutemanuals.com

[wildblue 7]

You want to travel between the two points?

First understand latitude and longitude:
http://www-istp.gsfc.nasa.gov/stargaze/Slatlong.htm

Those numbers are degrees minutes and seconds. Are you supposed to be filling in the blanks somewhere? N52*40'42" and N30*16'19" are just two lines of latitude.

EDIT: I didn't notice the E at the end of both of them - that doesn't make sense. Is it supposed to be 52*40'42"N and 30*16'19"E or something?

it's like incest - you're substituting convenience for quality

[NtheSeaOrSky 0]

No I dont think the county wants me to fill in my own blanks

I assumed it was a directional for how to get from post a to post b. So if the numbers represent degrees minutes and seconds, that would make sense...head 52 degrees east...(which was ideally the type of instruction I was looking for)..but the minutes and seconds, um whats that about?

Edit: It is not lat/long because I can pull that up on the GPS and it doesnt match.

Life is not fair and there are no guarantees...

[PhreeZone 20]

The degrees is not from a starting point, its on the globe. You really need to read the info that Seth posted.

Basically you have'nt given us all the information to solve your problem. A GPS cord should be N Degree, minute, Second W Degree, Minute, Second. That will put you at X*Y on the globe. Thats a starting point. From there you need a second cord that once again will be in the Degree, minute second format for both N and W. From there its easy to figure out your answer.

Unless the distance you are needing to travel is more then 10 miles apart the Degrees will be roughly the same for both the N's and range will be close for the W portion also. Its the minutes and Seconds that dial in exactly where you are.

Forget the 2D compass for now.


If its not Lat/Long then you don't want to use a GPS. You need to find out exactly what they are using as the markings.

Yesterday is history
And tomorrow is a mystery

Parachutemanuals.com

[NtheSeaOrSky 0]

There are no lat long coordinates on the map anywhere. THere are post locations and lines connecting those posts. Labeling those lines are the numbers like what I posted.

With the GPS I can get a lat/long reading on the post if I stand there long enough, hold my tongue just right and curse a few times. But my dilema is not the post, it is the line between posts which I have to mark. Like I said the GPS is ancient, so marking the two spots and following the GPS generated line between them does not work

Did that make any more sense?

Sorry I am being a pain guys and thanks for helping!!!

Life is not fair and there are no guarantees...

[flyhi 24]

Quote

So if the numbers represent degrees minutes and seconds, that would make sense...head 52 degrees east...(which was ideally the type of instruction I was looking for)..but the minutes and seconds, um whats that about?

Wildblue gave you a really good reference on Lat/Long. You seriously need to read that first. Here's a point on most GPS': They give you a trackline that is a great circle solution. That means if you lay out a flat map with the two points on it and draw a straight line and then the GPS solution, they won't be the same. GPS allows for the curvature of the earth. A great circle solution is generated anytime you take a plane (a 2D slice) between the two points on a globe. It is the shortest distance, but won't look right on a map. The larger the distance between the two points, the bigger the deviation.

Shit happens. And it usually happens because of physics.

[wildblue 7]

Quote

Did that make any more sense?

No.
Try drawing a picture or scan in what you're trying to explain. Or give us some idea of where you're at trying to do this. What does your GPS show when you stand at one of these 'posts'?

it's like incest - you're substituting convenience for quality

[NtheSeaOrSky 0]

I found it (finally) here http://www.residentialsurveying.com/plat.htm#bd

here is an idea of where the numbers are located http://www.residentialsurveying.com/plat.htm

Life is not fair and there are no guarantees...

[PhreeZone 20]

You are not talking GPS cords, thats your problem. You are talking surveying and thats whole seperate issue and method of measurement. I don't know much about that.

Yesterday is history
And tomorrow is a mystery

Parachutemanuals.com

[NtheSeaOrSky 0]

thats why i said i was using the 2D compass feature of the GPS to navigate.

sorry, poor communication on my part

Life is not fair and there are no guarantees...

[PhreeZone 20]

The 2D feature will only really work if you are moving since it figures out your heading by comparing your last two readings and seeing the difference between them. Go get a real compass. It will cost about $15-25 and it will let you shoot a berring.

Yesterday is history
And tomorrow is a mystery

Parachutemanuals.com

[wildblue 7]

I almost asked if you were trying to survey something, because that made more sense, but you were talking about a GPS. I can't help you much with that, but yes, that is the direction you need to go, not lat/log coordinates.

Quote

The 2D feature will only really work if you are moving since it figures out your heading by comparing your last two readings and seeing the difference between them.

I think he's using a surveyor's GPS, little different

it's like incest - you're substituting convenience for quality

[davedlg 0]

N52*40'42"E
N30*16'19"E

Those are *not* lat long. They do not signify a point on any map.

Those are bearing lines. Essentially it is surveyors talk for the direction of a line. Generally they are accompianed with the length of the line they are describing

Both Refer to lines that bear more or less northeast.

For example, the first line means that you start due north, go 52 degrees, 40 minutes and 42 seconds toward the east and that is the direction of the line. S52*40'42"W would describe the same line, but the opposite direction. Because this is north-east it also exactly cooresponds to the compass heading of 52 degrees.

I work with this stuff all the time. PM me if you need help.

[Guest]

Fun with GPS. A GPS unit outputs a standardized ASCII data train which can be interpreted by a computer (or a display, the the case of a hand-held device) (note - preamble not shown):


$GPRMC,145055,V,4453.6083,N,00944.9533,E,000.0,000.0,070399,000.3,E*7F

The individual elements of this string are:

"GPRMC" -- NMEA sentence type
"145055" -- GPS time of position fix (seconds)
"V" --- data quality: A = valid position, V = receiver warning
4453.6083 -- latitude "ddMM.mmnn"
N -- latitude N or S hemisphere
00944.9533 longitude "DddMM.mmnn"
E -- longitude E or W hemisphere
000.0 -- speed over ground (knots)
000.0 -- course over ground (0-359.9 degrees)
070399 -- date of position fix "ddmmyy"
000.3 -- magnetic variation direction
E -- magnetic variation E or W
7F -- checksum byte (= byte1 eor byte2 eor byte3 eor … byte66)

The string is terminated by the ASCII codes "13" (carriage return) and "10" (line feed). <<-- Note that all values are decimal ASCII, and not hexadecimal.

.

"The mouse does not know life until it is in the mouth of the cat."

[davedlg 0]

You can use bearings and lengths to get approximate GPS coordinates. The easiest way to do this is to change the units on your GPS to UTM. UTM stands for Universal Transverse Mercatur coordinates. When you pull up a UTM coodinate It will look something like this:

10 S 0559741
4282182

The "10S" describes the zone you are in. Zones are very large and you will probably not need to worry about this number. The second number describes your east-west position within a zone in meters. The third number describes your north south position within a zone in meters. So if you walk 1 meter due north the bottom number will increase by 1. If you walk 1 meter due east, the top number will increase by 1.

Let's say you are standing at the point above and you want to navigate to another point with a known bearing and direction. The first step is to calculate the components in each principal direction.

Using the first bearing line ( N52*40'42"E), let's say we want to go 1600 feet along this line. We have to walk both north and east to get there. How far north and east though? We can figure that out using trig.

So 50 degrees, 40 minutes, 42 seconds = 50 + (40 + 42/60)/60 degrees
OR
50.678 degrees

We can convert this into a northing component using the sine of the bearing angle:
So the northing component is:
1600*sin(50.678) = 1237.8 feet

Use the cosine to convert this to an easting component:
the easting component is:
1600*cos(50.678) = 1013.9 feet

Now we have our northing and easting components of the bearing line. We need to convert them to metric for use in UTM. So we divide them both by 3.28 to get 377.3 m, and 309.0 meters respectively.

If the Bearing line were southerly, we would subtract the northing component, if it were westerly we would subtract the easting component. In this case, our line is North and East, so we add both components.

so our new coordinates would be:
0559741 + 309 = 560050 (easting)
and
4282182 + 377 = 4282559 (northing)



Just plug this number into the GPS and walk to this point.

[NtheSeaOrSky 0]

I love you.

Life is not fair and there are no guarantees...

[davedlg 0]

A fancy GPS might incorperate all of this internally fyi.

Your GPS also might also just let you set a waypoint at the starting point and you could walk until the distance and direction to the waypoint was where you wanted it to be. ie for the 329.728 degrees and, say, 1600 feet you could walk until the gps read the direction back to the way point was 1600 feet on the opposite compass bearing (329.728 - 180 = 149.728)