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Old 04-14-2005, 20:24   #9
lksteve
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Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: Castle Rock, CO
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Quote:
Originally Posted by berdan
Yes sir, it sure would. But respectfully, I can not believe it could be that convenient for all maps/scales one may come across.
i work with maps from the USGS, USACE, USBOR, USBLM, USFS and a few from state agencies...every quad sheet i've come across, regardless of scale, has lat/long tic marks...i'm not saying they all do, i'm just saying that everyone i've come across in eleven years as a land surveyor, has...i use lat/long as often as possible...if i can put a project on a geodetic framework, i can give a client coordinates in just about any format, any system, ground, grid, geo-reference, Cartesian XYZ, you name it...

one thing to be aware of ...the older quad sheets will show lat/long in NAD 27 which is based on the Clarke Reference Ellipsoid of 1866...it was great for the northern part of the Western Hemisphere...it varies considerably from WGS 84 (the coordinates you get in a hand-held GPS) and/or NAD 83, which are both based on the Geodetic Reference System of 1980...this model is based on global attributes and is more accurate...

something else to be aware of, regarding the numbers associated with the tic marks on the margin of the map...some maps have UTM coords, some have State Plane Coordinate values, some have both...pay attention to that...at any rate, the projection should be listed (NAD 83 or NAD 27) on the map and if you are using a hand-held GPS, you should be able to toggle your coordinate system to one that matches your map...
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