Converting British Grid Ref To Lat/long

[+ryme-intrinseca]

Have done a search for this info, but can't quite find what I'm looking for.

 

Is there a website that would allow me to convert a British Grid ref into latitude / longitude? As far as I know, my Garmin Etrex does not have the capability to do this.

 

Thank you,

 

Becky

[+mtn-man]

I think I'm going to move this to the GPS Units and Software Forum.

Edited May 23, 2005 by mtn-man

[+stu_and_sarah]

Have done a search for this info, but can't quite find what I'm looking for.

 

Is there a website that would allow me to convert a British Grid ref into latitude / longitude? As far as I know, my Garmin Etrex does not have the capability to do this.

The yellow eTrex can do this, and so can the Legend. I'm sure yours can.

 

Go to the units menu, set the coordinates to British Grid and the datum to OSGB 39.

 

Enter the grid reference (padding with zeros if you need more digits - ie. SK561321 becomes SK 56100 32100)

 

Go back to the units menu, set the coordinates to the lat/long system of your choice and the datum to WGS84.

 

Hey presto!

 

Cheers,

 

Stu

[+Uncle T K]

It is my understanding that the British created the Lat & long System(Greenwich England) so why would they have a different system??

[+tozainamboku]

It is my understanding that the British created the Lat & long System(Greenwich England) so why would they have a different system??

Lat/Long worked great for sailors (Britania ruled the seas) but for land base maps a grid system worked better (in pre-GPS days). The problem is that such a system is by its nature a local one. So each country has its own grid. UTM is an attempt have a global grid but look at what happens at each zone boundary to see why local grids are still used. IMO, now that we have GPS to tell us where we are Lat/Long is all we need. But people who still rely on flat maps may disagree with me.