You are right, the article is quite short. Thats fine but one piece of data is a MUST.
I listen to the dispatchers 10 hours a day. When it involves a GPS, there is ALWAYS one major problem.
The owner of the GPS has not set the units to -
hddd.ddddd
If the lost/injured hunters attempts to transmit his location in degrees, minutes, seconds and 10th of a second, HE has created the problem. The listening dispatcher may not understand the terms. The retransmitted version by the dispatcher may not be understood by the untrained officers. The chopper will not be given the correct location. Rescue will be delayed.
If the UNITS on your GPS are set to degrees and decimal degrees, the screen will come up N 43.96633 W 116.18937.
Practice reading this correctly –
My location is -
NORTH Forty three point nine six six three three
WEST One one six point one eight nine three seven.
PLEASE REPEAT AND CONFIRM.
I don't think this is universally true. I can't speak to how dispatch works in your area. However, I am a volunteer with a local SAR team. Around here SAR missions often involve helicopters. Our local SAR air resources seem to much prefer coordinates in
degrees and decimal minutes. I have discussed this with the pilot of the State Trooper's helo who we often work with. I also discussed it with a pilot from one of our local helicopter medivac companies, and he said said the same thing. Using decimal degrees, as you recommend, makes it harder for air resources and adds the potential for errors and confusion.
In this case your coordinates would be: N 43 deg 57.980 min W 116 deg 11.362 min
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