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Another Way to Find Yourself
More on Waypoints
By John Milne

Fourth article in a seven-part series
UTM is based on a world grid system with the following characteristics:

  1. The earth's surface is divided into 60 vertical zones of 60 width, starting at the 1800 meridian and numbered easterly.
  2. The zones cover an area from 800 south of the equator to 840 north of the equator.
  3. These vertical zones are divided into 80 increments and given letter designations starting with"C" at the south. The letter "O" was not used to avoid confusion with the number zero.
  4. All UTM measurements refer to ground dimensions in meters—not angles in degrees, as with latitude and longitude.
  5. Each zone is divided by a central meridian from which all measurements are taken. This meridian is given a value of 50,000 meters (false easting) to avoid negative measurements.

to see the world divided into UTM zones.

Barse waypoint shown in UTMThe first number (0642850) in the waypoint reading on your display is called easting and indicates that the location of the end of the trail is 642,850 meters east of the central meridian in Zone 17. The second number (5127650), called northing, places the waypoint 5,127,650 meters north of the equator.

The location in the grid zone 17T looks like this:

Move on to *UTM and Topo Maps

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[from Outside magazine]