I am busy doing some work whereby GPS coordinates need to be keyed in, and then a route created to determine the distance.
Here is a sample of the coordinate: 28° 15' 31.946 E " 24° 54' 2.452 S "
My deciphering is that the format is: dd° mm' s.sss h”.
What is the name of this format on Basecamp in the Grid drop-down on the Position square under Options - Measurement?
If I insert the sample, how accurate is the conversion. I normally use Lat/Lon hddd.ddddd° which I understand to be called Decimal Degrees.
Your help please?
What is the name for this GPS format?
- Phillip Coetser
- 500 Posts

- Posts: 578
- Joined: 2012-08-01T07:48:25+02:00
- 13
- Location: Edenvale Gauteng
- Has thanked: 23 times
- Been thanked: 19 times
- Age: 77
Re: What is the name for this GPS format?
Hi, STosen, Phillip. What I can gather, from your given data, is the following: Latitude/Longitude in Basecamp is:
hddd mm' ss 's. In Basecamp, click on the Edit tab, and in the preferences listed, click on Position, then on the Grid, scroll down to the applicable setting as I've given you above, and ensure to keep the Datum block on WGS 84, click on apply. Hopes this helps
hddd mm' ss 's. In Basecamp, click on the Edit tab, and in the preferences listed, click on Position, then on the Grid, scroll down to the applicable setting as I've given you above, and ensure to keep the Datum block on WGS 84, click on apply. Hopes this helps
Personal Navigation Devices: - Garmin Drive Smart 65, Nüvi3597 LMT
Logic will take you from A to B...but.....
Imagination will take you everywhere.
Logic will take you from A to B...but.....
Imagination will take you everywhere.
- Phillip Coetser
- 500 Posts

- Posts: 578
- Joined: 2012-08-01T07:48:25+02:00
- 13
- Location: Edenvale Gauteng
- Has thanked: 23 times
- Been thanked: 19 times
- Age: 77
Re: What is the name for this GPS format?
Further to the topic,
Position formats:
hddd.ddddd = decimal degrees
hdd mm’ss.s” = Latitude / longitude in degrees, minutes, seconds
UTM/UPS = Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM)
WGS84:
A fully decimal format popular with GIS systems and used in higher-end GPS equipment. Positive values occur north of the equator and east of the prime meridian to the international date line, while negative values occur south of the equator and west of the prime meridian.
• Deg/Min/Sec:
The standard minutes/seconds translation of latitude/longitude; many GPS units support this traditional format.
• GPS:
A mixed minutes/decimal format which is becoming the standard for GPS equipment. All values are positive; the hemisphere is indicated by N and W. Minutes are attached to the degrees of the coordinates, while seconds are expressed in decimal format with the minutes.
Regards.
Position formats:
hddd.ddddd = decimal degrees
hdd mm’ss.s” = Latitude / longitude in degrees, minutes, seconds
UTM/UPS = Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM)
WGS84:
A fully decimal format popular with GIS systems and used in higher-end GPS equipment. Positive values occur north of the equator and east of the prime meridian to the international date line, while negative values occur south of the equator and west of the prime meridian.
• Deg/Min/Sec:
The standard minutes/seconds translation of latitude/longitude; many GPS units support this traditional format.
• GPS:
A mixed minutes/decimal format which is becoming the standard for GPS equipment. All values are positive; the hemisphere is indicated by N and W. Minutes are attached to the degrees of the coordinates, while seconds are expressed in decimal format with the minutes.
Regards.
Personal Navigation Devices: - Garmin Drive Smart 65, Nüvi3597 LMT
Logic will take you from A to B...but.....
Imagination will take you everywhere.
Logic will take you from A to B...but.....
Imagination will take you everywhere.
Re: What is the name for this GPS format?
Thanks Phillip,
Datum is set to WGS 84.
'hdd mm’ss.s” ' = Latitude / longitude in degrees, minutes, seconds is not exactly equal to 'dd° mm' s.sss h” ' The hemisphere 'S' is at the end of the string followed by the inverted commas.
This format (dd° mm' s.sss h”) might have another name from the drop down list.
(Lat/Lon hddd.ddddd°) is rather a cumbersome name compared to UPS, UPM or South Africa.
How accurate is the conversion which BaseCamp does?
Thanks
Shaun
Datum is set to WGS 84.
'hdd mm’ss.s” ' = Latitude / longitude in degrees, minutes, seconds is not exactly equal to 'dd° mm' s.sss h” ' The hemisphere 'S' is at the end of the string followed by the inverted commas.
This format (dd° mm' s.sss h”) might have another name from the drop down list.
(Lat/Lon hddd.ddddd°) is rather a cumbersome name compared to UPS, UPM or South Africa.
How accurate is the conversion which BaseCamp does?
Thanks
Shaun
- Jan Horn
- Administrator

- Posts: 1281
- Joined: 2012-07-29T19:28:45+02:00
- 13
- Location: Welkom-RSA
- Has thanked: 14 times
- Been thanked: 22 times
- Age: 83
Re: What is the name for this GPS format?
You can feed it in as E28 15 31.946 S24 54 2.452 which is degrees minutes seconds
Both MapSource and Basecamp have been programmed by Garmin to recognise the the input format and convert it to your preferred settings. The conversion is spot on.
Am I correct in that this point is on the R516 outside Warmbaths (BelaBela)
Both MapSource and Basecamp have been programmed by Garmin to recognise the the input format and convert it to your preferred settings. The conversion is spot on.
Am I correct in that this point is on the R516 outside Warmbaths (BelaBela)
Jan
Garmin Nuvi 52 Garmin Drive Assist 51 Samsung Galaxy S21
Garmin Nuvi 52 Garmin Drive Assist 51 Samsung Galaxy S21
Re: What is the name for this GPS format?
Jan, yes, it is close to Bela-Bela.
There are 80 waypoints I have captured, using the data (and format) I have.
They look more or less correct.
Thanks
Shaun
There are 80 waypoints I have captured, using the data (and format) I have.
They look more or less correct.
Thanks
Shaun
- Jan Horn
- Administrator

- Posts: 1281
- Joined: 2012-07-29T19:28:45+02:00
- 13
- Location: Welkom-RSA
- Has thanked: 14 times
- Been thanked: 22 times
- Age: 83
Re: What is the name for this GPS format?
I copied and paste the co ords directly form your post above to basecamp and it converted it to S24.90068 E28.25887 (decimal degrees)which is exactly what I got when I converted it manually.
You can safely use the data you have and basecamp will do the rest.
You can safely use the data you have and basecamp will do the rest.
Jan
Garmin Nuvi 52 Garmin Drive Assist 51 Samsung Galaxy S21
Garmin Nuvi 52 Garmin Drive Assist 51 Samsung Galaxy S21
