Using sat nav with road atlas

[SpikeUK]

I'm not a beginner by any means, but I couldn't find a forum which fits this topic.

I would like to be able to use my Tomtom along-side a proper road map. Often, in the middle of a long journey, I think it would be interesting to see exactly where I am on the road map. The TT gives me my location in Lat Long, but there is no easy way to transfer that information to the road map.

I'm currently using a Philip's Big Road Atlas of Britain. The map has numbers 1 to 10 along the bottom and letters up the side, which is no good at all for this, but if you look very closely there are very small numbers as well which I should imagine are to do with Lan and Long, but they bear no relation to what the TT says.

This is an area the map makers should look at, because if your sat nav takes you on a wrong route, along a railway line, up a foot path etc, it is very difficult to put the situation right if you can't find where you are on the map.

[Darren]

Surely you could just zoom out until you locate a town which would allow you to locate your position on the map?

I really can't see this being something many would need, if anything its an issue for the paper AtoZ publishers who should publish Lat/Lon but I can't see the need.

Anyone who drives along a railway or path will be far too stupid to have had the foresight to have a map handy
_________________
Darren Griffin

[Border_Collie]

[Andy_P]

Your road atlas is probably using OS grid references which are still widely used on most paper maps.

To convert to Lat/Long, you will need a co-ordinates converter like THIS ONE.
(Might not be much use on the road unless you have internet access somehow, while on the road!)

Also, as a minor point, the OS measurements are based on the OSGB36 reference devised in 1936
Sat Navs base their locations on the WSG84 reference so things will be slightly shifted

[harryparkes]

The number and letter marking are for Philips own grid for finding towns. The small figures may well be OS reference numbers. Many road maps use the OS grid. I don't know about the Philips one. Will you provide some of the "small numbers" together with a village to which they refer: this would enable a quick check.

There are plenty of downloadable programmes for converting WGS84 to OS grid. One such is from:
http://gps.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/convert.asp
The errors are less than a metre. Twenty years ago there was no error but continental drift has moved Europe from the WGS84 reference in continental america. It is of no significance to us because of the smallness of the error.

A final point on the OSGB36 lats and longs. Although OS maps continue to carry these markings, OS have effectivity abondoned them in favour of a european grid, ETRS89, for surveying purposes. Where I live, near Birmingham, there is a differerence of 97 metres between the them.

Harry

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