Unit Set Up and Different Formats

 

I'm looking for a preferred unit set up defined. Is there some standard? There are many different formats and I'd like to find out what they are intended for in a typical usage. The reason being is that besides from being a typical drive to here/there, I'm also a hiker... and in an emergency what is preferred?
So in the US, typical use that I see are:
lat/long
decimal degrees
degrees, minutes, sec
degrees, decimal minutes
UTM
US National Grid

So What are they designed for if any?

Decimal Degrees

kupua wrote:

I'm looking for a preferred unit set up defined. Is there some standard? There are many different formats and I'd like to find out what they are intended for in a typical usage. The reason being is that besides from being a typical drive to here/there, I'm also a hiker... and in an emergency what is preferred?
So in the US, typical use that I see are:
lat/long
decimal degrees
degrees, minutes, sec
degrees, decimal minutes
UTM
US National Grid

So What are they designed for if any?

They all say the same thing. For example, if you are looking at a map, the latitude and longitude may be easier to locate with degrees, minutes and seconds if that is how the lat/long lines are labeled. With the GPSr, generally the lat/long are specified in decimal degrees. That is the lat/long in degrees, and the minutes and seconds combined as a decimal equivalent of degrees, For example, 38 degrees and 30 minutes would be 38.5 degrees.

--
Garmin StreetPilot c530, Mapsource

If you are submitting coordinates for a gpsr's poi

Then use the desimal degree format... Otherwise it has to be converted to that for the gps tu use it...

--
It is terrible to speak well and be wrong. -Sophocles snɥɔnıɥdoɐ aka ʎɹɐƃ