Map and Compass

I've always been a nut about knowing exactly where I am, and where I'm going. I've loved maps and navigation ever since I was a kid.

Compasses and orienteering have always been a fun hobby for me. Even living in Wyoming, I used to try to get lost just to see if I could find my way.

Much like many things today, computers and technology have made things easier for the lazy people. When that technology doesn't work (out of range / out of service) they're screwed. GPS is a great example.

I had a hunting buddy of mine bugging me for years to get a GPS. I finally did. It's nice, but I can still do way more with a map and compass. Yeah sure, I can't see where Memphis is from the mountains of Montana, but I don't need to.

Compasses fall into (2) basic categories, baseplate compasses and sighting compasses. For most of my years I always used a baseplate compass, and was generally more accurate in my navigation than most with any other type of compass. The drawback is, most baseplate compasses don't have adjustable magnetic declination. For that matter, most compasses in general don't have adjustable declination. I would always make sure I knew the area's magnetic declination and was very familiar with converting back and forth, but it can be easy to make a mistake. Compass to map is one way, and map to compass is the opposite. One minor mental slip and you're going in the wrong direction (sometimes by miles).

Getting an adjustable declination compass is fairly difficult...and they're expensive. I guess they figure most people will get lost in the math, but the reality is they're much easier to use once you understand them.

With my handheld GPS, you have to actually move to get an accurate compass bearing. With a compass you don't have to move at all.

Back in my youth I used to say a compass was useless without a map, but the reality is if you understand your environment a compass is still useful. With an accurate map, a compass is far more useful then even a GPS, especially with a USGS top map.

What do you think about compasses, and compass navigation.

Note - Even with all my fancy electronics, I recently got a new mechanical compass. It's a SUUNTO MH-2, and yes, it has adjustable declination.

Isn't the magnetic field all messed up by you where you live FCD? Around here it is just a couple degrees off but I look at the declination map around Wyoming and Montana areas and it looks all twisted, some places you are heading west when the compass shows north. I suppose if you set it up in your local area it works there, but wondered if you have some weird spots like in places around here where the compass will take you to a hill from all directions.

a reply to: rickymouse

About 8.3 degrees here, but yes, iron in the ground can mess up a compass. You just need to take longer readings and cross check for local anomalies.

Iron in the ground causes a compass to become sticky

I have an astronomy app that down in Georgia was extremely accurate, since I moved to Fairbanks its off by a good 10 degrees.

Very glad my dad taught me how to use a compass, and the military taught me how to use that compass skill with a map.

originally posted by: visitedbythem
Iron in the ground causes a compass to become sticky

Above the underground river in my back yard, the compass points north and sometimes starts spinning in circles for a few minutes. In that area where it does that, tiny little twisters form in the spring when the ground is damp, they suck up all the leaves and then instead of tossing them in the woods, flop them right back on the ground. Mosquitoes and small sandflies also fly in little conelike twisters up and around the outside, then they go in and down through the middle and emerge to spin again.

That compass anomyly does not stay in the same place, it can move up to eight feet, and it bounces around like a candle flame when around wind, It stays in that one area though, I have watched the compass spin for up to two minutes in one spot, then move to where it starts spinning in a second spot. No clue what causes that. When the ground gets dry in the middle of the summer, it usually does not happen very much anymore, but every year it does for a while. Nothing rare I guess from what others have observed in areas around springs and underground creeks feeding the springs. I am sure that it happens in many places.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

What do you think about compasses, and compass navigation.

It's probably going to be a good skill to have in the near future.
I have been hearing predictions that say a chain reaction
of satellite destruction is possible due to all the space
junk that's already out there. People /businesses that rely
on GPS will then be screwed.

Oh, by the way, an anagram for "Global Positioning System"
is: "I am lost by point-less going."

Best get a compass and learn to use it all you GPS fans.

I learned orienteering as a Cub Scout, refreshed it in a high school survival class. When I got into backpacking with a friend we took both a basic and advanced orienteering class at the institute at Great Smoky Mountain National Park. That was just as portable GPS units were coming available on the civilian market. The advanced class was a real eye opener. The final exam was like an all day scavenger hunt. We had to follow directions around Cades Cove and find twenty points of interest in the forest using only a topo map and a compass. Each point building on the last until the final point. It was an old benchmark from the park systems survey.

It was great fun. I have used a map and compass from Alaska to Mexico. My son and I have even used a compass to find wreaks to dive on in the Florida keys. All you need are 3 fixed points and a good map.

Back in my youth I used to say a compass was useless without a map

In cases in which only general direction is required, a map is not needed (although helps to prevent hitting barriers like unfordable rivers).

Yes, compasses are very useful. Helps to know techniques like resection.

Not sure if I recall declination adjustment correctly. We used say "LARS" -- "left add right subtract", where left was if the correction was made counterclockwise.

Cheers

a reply to: Nickn3

Cades Cove. For some reason, I think I've heard of that area -- associated with either disappearances or some kind of paranormal activity.

Cheers

a reply to: Nickn3

Sounds fun!

Speaking of diving; for my night diving certification I had to fin out a large square, 100 yards x 100 yards. Could only use my dive light at (3) points along the way, and then only for a few seconds each time. I chose to use my light at the corners. You had to start at a given point, pick a direction (compass heading) and go straight, in pitch darkness underwater, for 100 yards, deploy a marker, then turn 90 degrees, go straight for another 100 yards, deploy a marker and turn 90 degrees again, and repeat that process one more time. In order to pass, you had to be within 30 feet of your starting point when you finished.

There were five others who took the course, and only two of us passed on the 1st try. Two of the remaining three didn't pass at all, and the third took three tries to get it right. My finish point was about 20 feet from my starting point. I think the other guy was at about 18 feet.

It was pretty challenging. This was in the South China Sea. We'd been diving all over that general area earlier in the day, and there were lots of critters (sharks, large fish, schools of baitfish and shrimp, etc.) That night there was a lot of phosphorescence in the water, so anything which moved left a trail. That was kind of spooky because a couple times there was something really big in the water right near where I was, but being pitch black I couldn't see it, I could only tell it was there.

originally posted by: F2d5thCavv2

Back in my youth I used to say a compass was useless without a map

...

Not sure if I recall declination adjustment correctly. We used say "LARS" -- "left add right subtract", where left was if the correction was made counterclockwise.

Cheers

Yeah, it's easy to forget. I have to refresh myself every now and then. Mental mistakes are really easy to make if you're not really careful. Most of my orienteering has been in the western US where the declination is 8+ degrees. Make a mental mistake and invert the process by accident and you can be off by 16 degrees. Walk a mile or two on a heading which is 16 degrees off your intended bearing and you can be nearly a mile off on your intended destination (which can put you on a completely different watershed).

I always used to use - "Map to compass = subtract. Compass to map = add." That was IF you were using a non-declination adjusted compass. With a declination adjustable compass there is no conversion between the two (as long as you read your compass correctly).

ETA - Our house sits on a 120 degree angle off true north, and our main road runs east-west. So, I always use these two to refamiliarize myself with the declination. I will orient myself with our house and then try to predict where the road is. Our road starts about 1,200 feet from the house, so I'll navigate from the house to the road (without looking around) and then see if my prediction of the orientation of the road is correct.

Never trust a LT with a compass.

Dead reckoning is also becoming a lost art in aviation. Every airplane is tequired to have a compass, but with GPS, too many people blow the simple compass off.

In the Military at least they still teach Land Nav courses with a Mil chart and compass. Definitely is a perishable skill.

a reply to: 38181

Yeah, mil chart navigation adds another dimension to everything. It's easy if everything you do is within that system, but converting between that and DMS, with weird angles, can be a challenge.

It's great if you're calling in artillery or an airstrike I guess...(something I do regularly) 😆

Learn to use maps and compasses many years ago but found knowing the topography and local streams and rivers just as valuable. If you know those head downhill until you hit one and you're never lost. Maybe not where you intended to be but that was always part of the fun for me. Getting semi-lost is something people rarely do anymore. I suppose it's a bit like the Australian idea of a walkabout. I miss those days.

a reply to: Asktheanimals

Yeah, I was going to say the same thing...water is one of the greatest compasses given to us by nature. I referenced it when I was talking about watersheds above.

The only problem with using water as a navigation tool is, if you're on the wrong side of it, going downhill only makes the situation worse, not better. Alaska will teach a fella that lesson real quick! BTDT.