When I first purchased my gps I was concerned about what format to use in my gps. I defaulted to hddd mm.mmm. That is the format that was used by land management agencies before the gps units came along. UTM (metric) is considered accurate.
Yesterday I was in multi-agency dispatch center and had the opportunity to check out a new CAD system. The new system displays an incident map and gives the incident location in hddd mm. mmm, hddd mm ss.s and UTM grid automatically. The system also provides road routing, nearest resources, current weather information, and an event log.
This system provides much more information then the CAD system that was state of the art a few years ago.
This system will help the dispatcher better indentify the incident to people on the ground be they rescue, fire, or law enforcement.
This system will help the hunter or fisherman out in the woods who has an emergency and can get word to fire or law enforcement. Clearly all trees do not have a street address but they do have a mapping address which can be found on your gps. Be it Lat/Long or UTM.
As I explained to my grandkids the other day fishing. In case of emergency they can call 911 on the cellphone, give the nature of the emergency, the lake we were on, and the Lat/Long displayed on my handheld gps or if it went down with me, the Lat/Long displayed on the fishfinder.
The nice thing about a gps unit is that it can give comfort to my quest on the boat when we are fishing a strange lake. They know they can find their way back. My father-in-law's sister had a panic attack out in the Gulf of California after running the boat all day she did not know how to back to port. Being a foolish male according to his own words my father-in-law had some fun at his sisters expense. He never got her out in the Gulf again. He lost a good fishing partner.
I believe that a good fisherman or hunter always has a what-if-plan. Educate your partners or if you are the new guy find out if there is a plan.
