Compass Orientation

[+Team Panda]

On the Maggellan Meridian Platinum, (and presumably some other GPSrs) there is an option for orientation of the onboard compass.

 

The User is given the option of "GPS Course" or "Magnetic North."

 

I'm assuming that "GPS Course" is synonymous with the military "Grid North." Is this correct?

 

Also, while I would prefer to stick with a Magnetic North orientation, is there any benefit to choosing "GPS Course" instead?

[+The Geocache Hunter]

As I don't have a "GPS course" choice on my Magellan, I will assume you are correct. In most places Grid North and True North are generally very close together or the the same. Using Grid or True North is helpful for accurately orienting a map. If you are using a map to navigate it is only accurate when it is facing True or Grid North. This is why maps have a Declination (or magnetic variance) diagram. If you use Topographical map than you should go with the grid north setting and let the GPSr automatically figure out the difference between Magnetic and grid north.

[+G-Squad]

I don't have the Magellan Meridian Platinum but I do have the Map 330. Could you be referring to map orientation and not compass orientation? For my 330, from the map display screen, I hit the menu button. Then I toggle down to map setup and hit enter. There are two tabs on the top. One is format and the other is display. I can toggle between the two by using the arrow pad and going left or right. On the format tab, there is an option for orientation. I highlight that and hit enter. My options are north up, course up, and track up.

 

I have never tried track up since I don't pre-load tracks.

 

I tried course up and got a bad case of the dizzies. The arrow on the display would stay pointing to the top of the GPSr and the map would rotate around it. Immediately after a turn in the car, the map would rotate. It was worse when I was near the cache. The map would flip-flop all around.

 

That leaves me with north up, fortunately my preference. North on the map stays pointing to the top of the GPSr and the arrow rotates around according to the direction you are travelling.

 

Hope this helps.