Do handheld GPS give your location as a Grid Reference?

Q. Looking to buy a basic GPS as a backup to the compass and map so if I'm lost would the GPS give me my location as a grid reference? Looking to buy the garmin etrex h. Regards,

David Eaves, Halesowen

A. A basic GPS such as the Garmin Etrex H will show your grid reference if set up. I find the Etrex very useful to transfer your trail where you have been to a map when you get home. I use Memory Map for this, but I think other mapping systems will do the job very well. The more expensive GPS units which show maps and your exact position at any given time are worth thinking about. Very expensive though.

John Swan, Derby

A. Yes - providing you set the position format of your GPS to 'BRITISH GRID' and the map datum to 'ORD SRVY GB' your GPS will give your location as an Ordnance Survey Map Grid Reference to the nearest metre and is accurate to about 25m or so.

I recently bought a Garmin Etrex 10 and it does everything you would need.

To see other questions and answers about GPS see GPS

Hope this helps . . .

Mike (Editor)

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