One of my scouts showed up with one of those exact models a few weekends ago when we were running them through an compass course at camp. I was a little exasperated - it was the 2nd unsuitable compass he had shown up with - but I showed him how to use it. Orienting the map carefully in order to then determine the bearing was the only method available to him, so I made sure he pre-calculated all of his bearings while at the start point. (Right now the local declination is close enough to zero)

Imagine my surprise when he showed up first at the finish line about 2 hours later - with all of the correct stations for his course (they all had different courses and stations)!

He's quite an intelligent young man and pays close attention. When I asked him about the compass, he grimaced and said that it was very difficult to use and that he only used it to make sure he was somewhat oriented and then read the map carefully to figure out where his next station was. Three days later he showed up at the regular meeting with a decent conventional compass.

I did not check the accuracy of the digital compass and frankly the whole gadget totally put me off - they styled the case to resemble someones idea of what a snazzy compass ought to look like (form over function). Without a doubt, most of how I am accustomed to using a compass either cannot be done with this gadget or would have to be done very differently. A good orienteering compass is so simple to use that I just don't "get it" - the "why" of this kind of digital compass escapes me.

I have never used a digital compass (a couple of my vehicles have them integrated into the onboard displays, but I don't need or use them), so I am interested to hear from folks who own and use high quality digitals. Surely there must be some good reason(s) for their existence <img src="/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

Anyone?