rhys wrote:
On 23 Oct 2004 02:32:30 GMT, (JAXAshby) wrote:
a
magnetic card compass for the northern hemisphere is funcitionally different
from one for the southern hemisphere.
I knew I should have played the lottery the day JAX finally got
something right and explained it without sounding like Forrest Gump.
Point made, JAX, now stand down before you strain something.
R.
ok, ok, ok.
So, it's been a long time since dippy compasses were discussed in my
presence. Please pardon my forgetting a subject so long disused.
So, if your 5Kbuck compass needs heart surgurey to keep it levelled
up with a north weight instead of a south weight, why not use your
pocket silva and give it enough tilt so it doesn't bind? I've
tried it now, and it seems to work just fine with a bit of a twist
on. Mind, I'm a dippy northerner, but we're not that far north, I
guess, nor that dippy, unlike some extant.
I don't usually bother with Jakz so I had to seek out the comment
regarding weighted compass cards.
It seems to me the amount of dip in the compass reading might be
some indication that you're way north, or you are passing over the
magnetic pole or something.
If I go all that far north or south, I will remember this gem: "A
cheap hand compass can be used where a millonaire's compass cannot."
Appropriate gear for the mission, eh?
I would also bring alernative nav devices, like homing pigeons,
odour samples, wave pattern transform almanacs, depth sounder, even
RDF, LORAN, pylorous, sextant, charts, or GPS, I guess.
Mind, dipping compasses would only be needed at extreme latitudes.
Who'da thunk? I guess crossing the equator means a major compass
replacement every time you cross the line, eh? Is that what the
shellbacks do while the nymphs are getting transsubstantiated?
Does this mean I can't trust my compass card inclinometer any more?
Vapour, right?
Terry K