AnswerID: 202324 Submitted: Wednesday, Nov 01, 2006 at 17:08
Member - Toolman (VIC)
replied:
Blaze,
IMO, If he is writing about AGM66 then I think he means AMG which stands for Australian Map
Grid and in that case it could be a typo. That is if he is giving you coordinates in Eastings and Northings as opposed to Latitudes and Longitudes.
If he is giving coordinates in Latitudes and Longitudes. then he is most likely talking about AGD66 which stands for the Australian Geodetic Datum 1966.
To say that AGD66 and WGS84 are close is probably not really correct from a mapping perspective but I guess that depends on what you consider is close. WGS84 and GDA94 are very close (sub metre differences). The difference is that WGS84 and GDA94 are geocentric datums which are specifically intended to be more accurate when using
GPS equipment as opposed to AGD66 which is an older datum developed before
GPS was available and is not a geocentric based datum. If you type AGD66 coordinates into a
GPS that is using either WGS84 or GDA94, you can get errors up to 200 metres but not necessarily everwhere it is not a consistent error.
If you try Googling "convert AGD66 to WGS84" there are converters about . Try the www.ga.gov.au and look there. I suspect that you can also do it in OziExplorer by entering the value in the original datum then changing the configuration to the intended datum but i have to try that to be confident if it can be done and then in how it is done.
Here endeth my spiel. I'll get off my soap box now.
Toolman
Reply 6 of 7
