coordinates not matching up

[Choi]

ok im looking at a page for a cache near my house and the coordinates are:

 

N 33° 44.654 W 118° 24.468 (WGS84)

UTM: 11S E 369599 N 3734688

on the page for the cache. I use WGS 84 on my garmin etrex legend, but i also have mapsource roads and recreation to make entering waypoints and trails easier...

 

so my problem is when i put the coord's in my etrex it finds the correct position, when i enter them in mapsource, they are in the ocean WAY AWAY from me (30 or so miles).

 

and heres another thing. when i look at the mapquest.com map of the cache. it has a different set of coordinates

 

Latitude: 33.74423

Longitude: -118.4078

 

which WORK in mapsource!

 

i dont get it... why would the main page about the cache have one set of coordinates and mapquest have diffenent ones? and why would my gps work with one set and not the other within mapsource?

[+Stunod]

You are looking at two diffent coordinate formats.

 

On this site, we use DD MM.MMM (degrees and decimal minutes). The Mapquest map is using DD.DDDDD (decimal degrees).

 

You can convert back and forth by multiplying the decimal degrees by 60 (or dividing the minutes by 60 to go the other way).

 

In your example, take 33 44.654 and divide the minutes by 60: 44.654 / 60 = .74423.

 

Going the other way, lets take the longitude: .4078 x 60 = 24.468.

 

Both formats will work with your GPS...somewhere in the setup menus (I don't have the same model as you) is a setting for coodinate format. Keeping it at DD MM.MMM is probably the best thing if you use the geocaching site's coodinates. I'm also not sure how to set up your mapsource software to accept/display DD MM.MMM, but I'm sure its there somewhere.

 

"Just because I don't care doesn't mean I don't understand."

 

[This message was edited by Stunod on May 23, 2003 at 12:58 PM.]

[Choi]

yay that worked, i went in and switched the coordinate format in garmin and they now are on dry land!

 

thanks Stunod