Why decimal waypoints?

Submitted: Monday, May 07, 2007 at 11:08
ThreadID: 45176 Views:4530 Replies:7 FollowUps:6
This Thread has been Archived
I have been trying to load the waypoints for the Murchison to Paraburdoo via Mt Augustus trek. Initially I purchased waypoint credits and had them sent to my email for download - nice and easy. Wrong. The download file can't be read by my software - I wasn't aware that the file was only for one specific software package (Oziexplorer?). As I don't use a pc when travelling, and my GPS (eTrex) doesn't hold maps, I don't really need new software.

So, no big deal, just manually input the waypoints to my software and load into my GPS. Wrong. The waypoints are all in a decimal format EG: S32.123456. My software does not have this as an option. If it did it wouldn't help because my GPS doesn't have this as an option either.

Back to 'Search'. Luckily in post 34510 'Garbutt' had the same problem and 'Pajman Pete (SA)' was able to advise that if you multiply the numbers after the decimal point by sixty you get to a useable format. (As long as you remember to insert a leading zero where necessary).

In this post Garbutt asked why the decimal format is used on this site when Hema maps, and all of the off roads books I have have, use other formats, and obviously quite a few GPS units won't accept it. There was no reply to his question and I wondered what the answer might be?

Is it because Oziexplorer is the 'software of choice' ? If so, surely it is capable of handling the more common formats. Or is it perhaps considered to be the way of the future and this is a campaign to get us all to change to new GPS units that can handle decimal references?
Back Expand Un-Read 0 Moderator

Sponsored Links