What's the correct way to verbally state waypoints?

[The Neighbors 3]

Hi Everyone,

First off, I apologize if I've placed this question in the wrong thread! I wasn't sure where to place it. My question is when verbally stating a waypoint, what's the correct way to state it?

 

For this waypoint:

 

N 41°35.517’ W088°11.453’

 

I would say "North 41 degrees 35 minutes 517 thousandths of a minute. West 88 degrees 11 minutes 453 thousandths of a minute."

 

But should there an "and" included. Everytime I state a waypoint I feel silly.

 

Since I'm asking...what's the correct way to write it all out? Should there be any commas between the parts?

 

Thanks for the help!

TN3

Edited November 23, 2008 by The Neighbors 3

[+Cardinal Red]

Hi Everyone,

First off, I apologize if I've placed this question in the wrong thread! I wasn't sure where to place it. My question is when verbally stating a waypoint, what's the correct way to state it?

 

For this waypoint:

 

N 41°35.517’ W088°11.453’

 

I would say "North 41 degrees 35 minutes 517 thousandths of a minute. West 88 degrees 11 minutes 453 thousandths of a minute."

 

But should there an "and" included. Everytime I state a waypoint I feel silly.

 

Since I'm asking...what's the correct way to write it all out? Should there be any commas between the parts?

 

Thanks for the help!

TN3

I would say "North 41 degrees, 35 point Five One Seven minutes. West 88 degrees, 11 point Four Five Three minutes."

[7rxc]

Hi Everyone,

First off, I apologize if I've placed this question in the wrong thread! I wasn't sure where to place it. My question is when verbally stating a waypoint, what's the correct way to state it?

 

For this waypoint:

 

N 41°35.517’ W088°11.453’

 

I would say "North 41 degrees 35 minutes 517 thousandths of a minute. West 88 degrees 11 minutes 453 thousandths of a minute."

 

But should there an "and" included. Everytime I state a waypoint I feel silly.

 

Since I'm asking...what's the correct way to write it all out? Should there be any commas between the parts?

 

Thanks for the help!

TN3

I would say "North 41 degrees, 35 point Five One Seven minutes. West 88 degrees, 11 point Four Five Three minutes."

 

I can live with that 'point', but most would say 'decimal' for clarity especially on radio. Point also has other meanings in some forms of navigation, as in marine usage... ie. 3 points on the port bow or something...

 

Doug

Edited November 23, 2008 by 7rxc

[+BlueDeuce]

Who are you saying this to? If it's another cacher I'd say

 

"Write this down, North-41 35 dot 517 West-88 11 dot 453".

 

After that they are on their own.

Edited November 23, 2008 by BlueDeuce

[+StarBrand]

....

I would say "North 41 degrees, 35 point Five One Seven minutes. West 88 degrees, 11 point Four Five Three minutes."

yup - me too.

[+coreynjoey]

Who are you saying this to? If it's another cacher I'd say

 

"Write this down, North-41 35 dot 517 West-88 11 dot 453".

 

After that they are on their own.

 

 

When talking with another geocacher, that's how I say it. (except I say point instead of dot )

[+Fuzzywhip]

I have been saying:

 

North 41 degrees 35 point 517 [pause] West 88 degreen 11 point 453

 

Seems to work for me.

 

As for writing down coords, I have been using a method that allows posting coords without confusion:

 

N41-35.517

W088-11.453

 

Using the hyphen separates the degrees from the minutes and still allows a compact way of presenting the coords.

[+trainlove]

But should there an "and" included. Everytime I state a waypoint I feel silly.

 

Since I'm asking...what's the correct way to write it all out? Should there be any commas between the parts?

In the States we say 35 point 517 minutes, or 35 dot 517 minutes, or even 35 decimal 517 minutes but that's a European custom there.

By the way, the first number that has an 'A' in it is not one hundred and one, it's one thousand.

I don't think the AND is correct grammar but you should have an and between the degrees and the minutes part, and no commas.

 

As an esoteric point I like to say whenever I can.

Do you know that even though minutes and seconds look like time, they have absolutely nothing to do with that. A minute is a minute part of a degree (hard I), and a second is a secondary part of a minute.

[7rxc]

In the States we say 35 point 517 minutes, or 35 dot 517 minutes, or even 35 decimal 517 minutes but that's a European custom there.

 

By the way, the first number that has an 'A' in it is not one hundred and one, it's one thousand.

I don't think the AND is correct grammar but you should have an and between the degrees and the minutes part, and no commas.

 

As an esoteric point I like to say whenever I can.

Do you know that even though minutes and seconds look like time, they have absolutely nothing to do with that. A minute is a minute part of a degree (hard I), and a second is a secondary part of a minute.

 

Actually, it is an International Standard for Radio Communications of which the US is a signatory...

As for what is used in informal person to person communications by other formats, what ever works is fine.

When it's in a number I call it a decimal (yes, point) so I'm easy there... dot is descriptive... I only use that for addressing as in dot Com...

 

As for not so 'trivia' for navigators, did you know that the degree/minute/second symbols are Roman 0 I II characters in superscript. As you said, they refer to 'steps' whole of a circle, the first subdivisions (minuta prima), and further divisions of those (minuta secunda). The usage is similar to exponent designators.

Oh yes... minuta means a little piece.

 

I always find someone who manages to treats the decimal part of minutes as seconds and vice versa and who is usually lost.

 

Doug

[+vw_k]

When geocaching the only thing I am concerned with is tapping the co-ords into the GPSr, so verbally I would say "North Fourty One, Thirty Five, Five One Seven"

[+Renegade Knight]

Who are you saying this to? If it's another cacher I'd say

 

"Write this down, North-41 35 dot 517 West-88 11 dot 453".

 

After that they are on their own.

 

Likewise only a tad shorter. The other cacher should know where the dot is by the pause as I read it. vw_keychain looks to be the same.

 

North 41 35 517 West 88 11 453

[+JBnW]

One should be cautious of using hyphens when writing Lat-Longs in formal communications, to some it is read as a "negative" sign to denote east or west of the Prime Meridian. Instead, use a superscript 0 to denote degrees SPACE Min.decimal (as used on any cache page here). It should also be a 3 digit degree, as in W096 12.345. Just my 0.02.

[+BlueDeuce]

I was speaking so you wouldn't have heard the hyphens. Even if west is - I wouldn't say - or the leading 0. If you're not sure after I gave you the coords please just ask for clarification.

 

I'll just say, " Good grief! Just mark a waypoint and change the numbers. You'll figure it out." Then I'll stomp-off looking for the cache.

[+markandsandy]

It's 41 space 35 point 51, no 41 degrees and 35 decimal, no 41 degrees 35 comma......

 

Oh, it's behind that big tree over there

[+JBnW]

I was speaking so you wouldn't have heard the hyphens. Even if west is - I wouldn't say - or the leading 0. If you're not sure after I gave you the coords please just ask for clarification.

 

I'll just say, " Good grief! Just mark a waypoint and change the numbers. You'll figure it out." Then I'll stomp-off looking for the cache.

 

I'm sorry, I was typing about formal written communication style...as pennance to our in-house cartographer, who sometimes thinks I'm working in China, rather than Kansas.

 

Verbally, I would say 39(pause)16(pause)663 by 96(pause)31(pause)387 and hope you know N/S comes before E/W, and that North America is "N" and "W".

.

.

.

If not, I'd take the GPS from them and do it myself.