

UK 'over-reliant' on GPS signals, engineers warn - mopoke
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12668230

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thisrod
Hear hear.

Suppose the following. Fortunately, you're in a remote bit of Australia.
Unfortunately, you've broken a leg. Fortunately, you have a rescue chopper on
the phone. Unfortunately, you dropped your GPS in a river. Fortunately, you
know where you are, and you have a standard topographic map, so you read them
a grid reference.

They won't be able to find you.

I realise that they're from the government, and they're here to help. Even so
...

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prodigal_erik
I don't understand the problem. Does the map rely on a different datum than
WGS 84 (which GPS uses) for latitude/longitude?

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Geodetic_System>

~~~
thisrod
If the datum mattered, we'd declare victory already. Aviation GPS units use
latitude and longitude, the maps use UTM, and the pilots have no way to
convert. D'oh!

