How a compass helps in navigation?
Is it still useful in today's sat nav enabled phones?
I think even when there is no network GPS in phone still works.
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Compasses dont need batteries.
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A compass is great, but you still need to know where you are and where you want to get to.
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A compass needs a map really...should be basic education in school - we were taught by an enthusiastic primary school teacher.
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>> Compasses dont need batteries.
Or any magnetic sources nearby.
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When you have no phone signal then of course GPS still works. But knowing your location in coordinate terms is useless without a map. If you have offline mapping on the device (or cached maps if it's Google) then it's going to be useful.
My car always displays the direction you're driving in the MFD.
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An Smartphone is as much use as a teapot on a cold wet mountain in the rain.
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I've used smartphones (and before that a PDA) in such situations. They can be excellent if you have Ordnance Survey maps on them. Plan your routes in advance and follow it.
I used Memory Map on the PDA years ago and have Viewranger now (used on Symbian and more recently Android).
Being a smartphone the only thing you might consider is a water proof case for it. But a Smartphone is very useful when on a mountain walk.
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"My car always displays the direction you're driving in the MFD"
You need to look out of the window more... :-)
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I assume it's telling me the truth in terms of direction! :-)
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natures compass is all around you wherever you are, you just got to know how to read it!
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natures compass is all around you wherever you are,
Sky Dishes are the accurate way :)
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>> How a compass helps in navigation?
A map and a pair of compasses works for me!
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Yep, the Sky dishes grow on the opposite side to the moss. Trouble is, they only guide you to the right.
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I was intrigued by that programme on navigating around the country without a compass using nature and common sense...
All about prevailing wind directions , shapes of trees and which side of the wall lichens are growing....which way churches and TV aerials face etc....
Very interesting ....but I still prefer a good ordnance survey map....
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I used the sun yesterday. I was trying to get across an unfamiliar town's one-way system, complicated by temporary roadworks and diversions.
I knew I basically needed to head south east, so kept the sun somewhere to the right and a bit ahead, as it was midday. It worked a treat, and the spot decision at an unmarked junction paid off and I found myself exiting on the correct road.
At night the moon sometimes serves well too.
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I use the sun that way all the time. I started doing it in western France where it was almost impossible to keep reliable track of exactly which tiny 'white' road we were on on the yellow Michelin maps. It solved the problem of ending up back where we started, which had happened more than once.
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I carry a compass in the lorry as the best method of navigation round here (especially when delivering to remote farms) is still the OS map. Satnavs do not guarantee to get you to the correct delivery point (which can be in the next valley to the farmhouse itself) and there are too many cloudy days to rely on the suns position. Plus I don't wear an analogue watch at work.
Most pound shops sell the orienteering type of compass. Worth keeping one in the glove box IMO.
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I'll cough to using TV aerial directions, but it's not practical to expect many people to be able to do so. I have the advantage I worked for 20 years in a job that taught me the locations of transmitters and aerial directions in the whole country.
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I use the sun that way all the time. I started doing it in western France...
Fair enough, but Cliff presumably did it in Wales. I'm quite impressed that he even knew what the sun was.
We got thoroughly lost in the white roads of western France in June. Mrs Beest is an expert map reader but resolutely resists using any other technique, so when landmarks are scarce she runs out of ideas. Admittedly the sun wasn't an option this time because it was piddling down, but I think it always helps to know which way I'm travelling, compass-wise, and what place names might be useful intermediate destinations, or might just get me back on an identifiable road.
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I generally know which direction I am going in, without conscious references to the sun or anything else.
SWMBO is an excellent map reader and navigator, but on the rare occasions we wrong slot, I normally know within seconds.
Suppose I make subconscious references.
I can go back to places I have not visited for many years, and find my way easily.
I put this down to a voracious interest in maps of all kinds. I generally review journeys beforehand, so obviously this helps.
I find that I quickly feel uneasy if I start driving (or walking) in the wrong direction.
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>> I put this down to a voracious interest in maps of all kinds. I generally
>> review journeys beforehand, so obviously this helps.
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>> I find that I quickly feel uneasy if I start driving (or walking) in the
>> wrong direction.
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Me too, the few minutes spent reviewing a journey pays off in both time and fuel. My sense of direction kicks in as well.
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I too have a a well developed sense of direction and ability to ' go the right way'. However when I do get it wrong (maybe 2 or 3 times a year?), I get it wrong big time! Probably because I am so used to getting it right.
Maybe it it is just down to localised magnetic and gravitational anomalies? :)
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>> I was intrigued by that programme on navigating around the country without a compass using
>> nature and common sense...
>>
>> All about prevailing wind directions , shapes of trees and which side of the wall
>> lichens are growing....which way churches and TV aerials face etc....
>>
>> Very interesting ....but I still prefer a good ordnance survey map....
>>
do you have a link to the program at all please. sounds very interesting
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Here you go....nyx2k
Programme called 'All roads lead home'
Specially interesting is the bit about navigation by the dryness of dung.....
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b015r93h
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If all else fails still good to have a liquid compass on board.
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>>If all else fails still good to have a liquid compass on board<<
Is that a Dutch drink then Ducky?
:-}
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Now then Doggo a bottle of Genever always helps.>:)
Stringent laws now regarding alcohol on ships,you have to be sober on the bridge.Unless under foreign flag Monrovian helps all for tax evasion and union laws.
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I'm not edumacated like you are Dutchie, I never realised Monrovia actually existed.
Good thing this ere internet thingamajig though, I'll ask the ole woman if she knew Monrover is the capital of Liberia.
;)
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>> I'm not edumacated like you are Dutchie, I never realised Monrovia actually existed.
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>> Good thing this ere internet thingamajig though, I'll ask the ole woman if she knew
>> Monrover is the capital of Liberia.
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>> ;)
>>
You need to read "Saunders of the River"...
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It's available via gutenberg actually, all I need to do now is learn to reed.
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Named after US President Monroe. Liberia was settled by former American slaves and the government modelled on that of the US.
Not a lor of people know that!
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Is it possible to register ones car in Liberia as a way to dodge parking fines and be 'beyond the law' I wonder?
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>> Here you go....nyx2k
>>
>> Programme called 'All roads lead home'
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>> Specially interesting is the bit about navigation by the dryness of dung.....
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>> www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b015r93h
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thanks for that very much. been overdoing things a bit and been ordered to rest for a few days so laptop in bed for me being waited on.
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Could've done with one today, trying to find my way to T junction's brother-in-law.
I knew I was in the right area of Milton pfd Keynes, but with cloud cover I was stymied and a total absence of signs indicating the village(rather than the estate) I wanted, I was stuffed until I gave him a bell.
I get the impression I'm not alone in that hell-hole.
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>> I knew I was in the right area of Milton pfd Keynes, but with cloud
>> cover I was stymied and a total absence of signs indicating the village(rather than the
>> estate) I wanted, I was stuffed until I gave him a bell.
>>
>> I get the impression I'm not alone in that hell-hole.
Not at all. I know the way to the rail station OK but going further rarely enter the shopping car park by same route.
Getting to the Rohan shop at Giffard Park is pure guess work.
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Should've used a Tom Tom Tom.
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I think I called him Tom Tit once.
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>>I get the impression I'm not alone in that hell-hole.
Probably not. But some of the others haven't been seen or heard from in years. Still there, I reckon.
A smartphone with compass, altitude, GPS and all that other clever stuff was great fun for the girls as they investigated how to make their own OS Map.
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Compass - Lygonos
