Hi Folks,First post here after searching old threads. Sorry if its a dumb question… but its not dumb to know the answer!Is there an industry standard for Latitude and Longitude?Is it decimal degrees: 11.996252 -61.761046Degrees Decimal Minutes: 11 59.7751 N 061 45.6627 WDegrees Mins Secs: 11 59 46.504 N 061 45 39.761 WReason I ask is I am a cruising sailor, (1.5 circumnavigations 35,000+nms on current cruise) and on a few cruising forums, but no one seems to know what ships use.Example of relevance is a Mayday from a container ship I received that was unanswered. I could not understand his L&L due to his urgency, accent, transmission quality… and perhaps format.Thanks :)Mark
Degrees Decimal Minutes. So we might say: “one one degrees two two decimal three north zero four four degrees five five decimal six east” (11° 22.3’N, 044° 55.6’E).
No one says more than one decimal minute and frequently we omit the decimal altogether to give only whole degrees and minutes: “one one degrees two two north zero four four degrees five six east” (11° 22’N, 044° 56’E). No one says the seconds.
I can tell you on DP vessels every bit of kit has a different display which now needs to go to 5 decimal places if you are using 50mm DGPS
N104.00.01
N104.00,01
N104.00.001
N104.00.0001
N104.00,00.01
N104.00.00001
You see all of these
and UTM which is great when you are on location
We use minutes and seconds in logbook and tenths of a minute for compass correction logbook.
Thanks for the advice. So you guys use all three systems!
Thanks for the replies.
Mark
It all depends on what the position data is for. If I was sending my own May Day, I would transmit my position to the gnat’s ass!
But for everyday normal use the most widely accepted and practical use is 10*32.0’ when navigating with regular GPS/manual methods 60 feet isn’t going to mean a hell of a lot unless you’re letting the electronics drive and aren’t paying attention…
DP, construction, stuff like that is entirely its own thing and requires a different level of accuracy