Latitude/longitude question.

Ricky327 · 07-28-2004, 01:39 AM

Anyone know the proper way to say a location

If lets say I have a data from the NMEA sentence :

Latitude : 4916.45,N
Longitude : 12311.12,W

Do I then say >

"The vehicle location is -
Longitude 123 Degrees and 11.12 Minutes West
Latitude 49 Degrees and 16.45 Minutes North"

Im a bit confused where the longitude/latitude should be said >

Longitude 123 Degrees and 11.12 Minutes West
or is it like this >
123 Degrees and 11.12 Minutes West Longitude

Do I have to say "and" in between the degrees and the minutes?

Do I also have to say "and" in between the longitude location and latitude location as in >

Longitude 123 Degrees and 11.12 Minutes West
***AND***
Latitude 49 Degrees and 16.45 Minutes North"

I know it sound like a stupid question but this is bothering me...why because Im programing/building a tracking device that anounce the location of the car via a mobile phone.

Someone must know
TIA

Zoltan · 07-28-2004, 08:06 AM

Not a useful response:

That's an interesting question if you ask the right people. Like me for example...

I happen to be a Bomber Pilot, so obviously passing coordinates over the radios is something we do on a regular basis.

The question is actually more complicated than you think. There are several coordinate standards that could concievable be used. The one we use in the B-52 community is called WGS84 Degress, Minutes, Decimal minutes. What you typed in appears to be in the same format. [edit] My navigator tells me that WGS84 is the GPS standard.

We would say "North 49, 16.45, West 123, 11.12."

That may or may not help you, but I thought I'd add my 2 cents. Enjoy!

grepzen · 07-28-2004, 08:14 AM

well..actually Zoltan hit it right and square..

The format will depend on the enduse and any standards declared there in. If you just want to sound like you know what you're talking about then you've already got the idea.. just stick to logic and clarity. I was a 'Nav Plotter' for several years and used a similar simple sleak format that worked for us.

Ricky327 · 07-28-2004, 11:44 AM

Many thanks for the info.

Yes the location will be in WGS84 format, I think thats standard for most if not all GPS receiver/software.

So to sum it up you are saying :

Theres no need to say Latitude or Longitude. The Latitude is always assumed to be first being said followed by the Longitude?

And the direction is North/South/East/West is always said before the numbers?

The aim of the project is to make the location understandable to non technical poeple. This synthesized voice announcing the location of the vehicle is just a backup...the owner can still know where about is the car if theres no access to a PC to plot the location. Naturally the location is transmitted in real time and plotted on a mapping software.

I guess you are the best person to locate the stolen car and drop a bomb on the thieves

Infact Im even more confused now, from what I seen it is the opposite to what you said. Maybe its different for the military stuff