Magnetic or True North

[Guest McFlyGuy]

Do all GPS units go by magnetic north or true north and thusly which one are caches at.

I would appreciate any help you can give me on this.

also should i take a regular compass with me as well as me E trex.

 

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Marty

[Guest mcb]

In the setup screen of your eTrex you should be ablel to select true or magnetic north. I think all Garmin units have this ability and I would assume most other units do. I usually leave mine on magnetic auto variation. This mode it atomaticlly adjusts for the magnetic declination for you location.

 

I alway carry a compass with my GPS. Unless your GPS has a compass built in (the eTrex does not but the eTrex Summit and Vista do) then when you are standing still you will not be able to tell where north is with you GPS. A GPS has no way of telling its orientation it only know where it is and if it is moving it know what direction it is moving.

 

Hope this helps

 

mcb

[Guest 300mag]

Just to add from mcb.

I always bring my compass to navigate.I get the bearing from the gps set up the compass and shut the gps off.This way it saves on batteries.You can aim your compass at a certain spot ie:far away tree rock etc and walk out to it without always checking the gps or compass.This will also save time and you can look where your walking instead of the gps screen.You can always put your gps back on and re-adjust yourself until you get close to the cache if your not sure.My gps stays locked on navigate to that specified waypoint.So when i put it back on it is already navigating to the waypoint specified until nav is canceled.

If your using a compass use magnetic north declination.