• Welcome to The Bushcraft Forum

    You are currently viewing the site as a guest and some content may not be available to you.

    Registration is quick and easy and will give you full access to the site and allow you to ask questions or make comments and join in on the conversation. If you would like to join then please Register

Compasses - Advice needed

Ystranc said:
That's not for me Joe, I won't even step outside without a full risk assessment. There is no way I'd go anywhere unfamiliar without map, compass, whistle, FAK fire lighting kit, spare glasses and orange bivvi bag. I'm relatively new to GPS and smart phones having resisted owning one for a long time but these days I carry one with the "what three words" app loaded
Click to expand...
I also have what 3 words on my phone and also carry a compass more out of habit than necessity
 
I have a friend who’s a member of ogwyn valley mountain rescue so have visited their base a few times for a brief and a brew. They like the 3 words app but say they rarely use it as when someone dials 999 to call them out they call them back and can usually position the victim using the phones gps; when I was there they actually talked two girls down off the side of tyrfan without leaving the base, 3 Words is another option but it’s not used as much as I’d have thought.

38
 
I Mentioned it on here before but you can actually register your phone to text 999, sometimes a message will get through when a call won’t. All you have to do is text “register” to 999 and follow the instructions you get sent back.

38
 
38thfoot said:
I have a friend who’s a member of ogwyn valley mountain rescue so have visited their base a few times for a brief and a brew. They like the 3 words app but say they rarely use it as when someone dials 999 to call them out they call them back and can usually position the victim using the phones gps; when I was there they actually talked two girls down off the side of tyrfan without leaving the base, 3 Words is another option but it’s not used as much as I’d have thought.

38
Click to expand...
I've found it useful for deliveries.
 
Loving reading this
discussion of ye olde Silva compasses, in these days of GPS navigation... I'm definitely old school myself. Driving I still prefer paper maps.

I wonder if any of the other old bastards on here (particularly the mariners like Sax or Bam) remember being taught to use a sextant? I do, but can't remember much today...

Now that was a skill...

Funnily enough, when you do your pilots licence -even these days- it's always been all analogue with a rotary slide rule, paper maps and magnetic compass exactly like they taught my dad in the 1940s...

Of course, once through training, everybody's flying from an EFB or on board nav system -following the magenta line!
🤣

Alan
 
A very fine German made Sextant accompanied me on all my voyages Alan, I just wish my skill in using it had matched it's precision..😊
Not quite true really, I used it very often in conjunction with a set of Distance off Tables. Published Navigation tables which basically give a height, Sextant angle and corresponding distance from the object observed. So a clifftop light House marked on the chart as 50 metres above sea level observed with the Sextant would give a Sextant angle. Look it up in the book and a distance from the object would be shown. Very handy when sailing close between Islands and a safe distance off needing to be maintained.
I struggled desperately with Astro though, just getting a Sight on a rolling yacht is difficult enough, although on an Atlantic crossing I managed to get my Latitude spot on but like many of the old time Sailors my Longitude (timing) was a bit adrift and the French West Indies appeared about 4 hours before they should have done so...I blamed my Watch..🤣

land ho! - Copy.jpg
 
Gulfalan67 said:
Loving reading this
discussion of ye olde Silva compasses, in these days of GPS navigation... I'm definitely old school myself. Driving I still prefer paper maps.

I wonder if any of the other old bastards on here (particularly the mariners like Sax or Bam) remember being taught to use a sextant? I do, but can't remember much today...

Now that was a skill...

Funnily enough, when you do your pilots licence -even these days- it's always been all analogue with a rotary slide rule, paper maps and magnetic compass exactly like they taught my dad in the 1940s...

Of course, once through training, everybody's flying from an EFB or on board nav system -following the magenta line!
🤣

Alan
Click to expand...
Not this cat Alan, I was more radios. Can't ever recall seeing a sextant being used (on the roof, not much use when you're deep :lol: ).
 
I was shown how to use a sextant as an undergraduate studying geography in the mid 1980s.. Of course as a land lubber my feet were planted firmly on terra firma but I still struggled with reading and processing the tables.

Just three years later I was hauling one of the very first commercially available GPS around in the Congo. I remember it being the size of a shoe box, heavier than a brick and of dubious reliability and accuracy. But that's progress for you...
 
I just think it's nice to see a highly experienced Navigation Instructor bothering to produce such concise and informative videos on You Tube....🤣
 
LOL (no offence taken Rob)
tbh I found that guy's explanation poor. Maybe just a lack of presentation skills.

I think this here is something I could have a go at in our local woodland as there's no chance of me getting lost there anyway. :)
I do like this guy's channel, his explanations are generally short, to the point and well explained.
 
Some uses here that I hadn't considered. Like using a compass to estimate the distance across a ravine or for telling the time! Now, that I must try.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Bam
OK, just tried that and was about an hour out as I calculated it should be 14:40 (40 deg = 2.6 hrs past noon (15 deg per hour) = 14:40) but it was 15:20 :confused!:
 
er ok I must have messed up the first time.

Now the sun is at 50 deg from 360 = 3.33 hours past noon = 15:20 (actually 15:30) so not far out! :)
 
  • Like
Reactions: Bam
Being on your own turf is possibly the best place to practice using the map and compass........as you say Paul......little chance of getting lost.
A good place to hone your skills and get used reading a map and picking out contours and features.....even possible dangers.

Good luck and enjoy mate.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top