U S U / N A S A G E O S P A T I A L E X T E N S I O N P R O G R A M
O n T a r g e t 2 0 0 5
Application #3: Finding a waypoint that was defined by
someone else
You might need to navigate to a waypoint that has been previously defined by someone else (i.e. a
landowner, an extension agent, or other colleagaues). This person may have used a different model
of GPS unit and only provided you with the coordinates (or you can obtain the location off of a Geo-
graphic Information System, more commonly known as GIS, or other map).
Your GPS unit can not guide you to a coordinate pair if the coordinates are not stored in your GPS
unit as a waypoint. There is a way around this problem by simply manually en-
tering the coordinates of the waypoint into your GPS unit.
To create a waypoint manually:
1. Press the mark button to access the
Mark waypoint
screen.
2. Using the cursor, highlight the
Location field
on the
Mark waypoint
page
3. Enter the new coordinates using the numerical keyboard on the
screen. Highlight and press ok when finished.
Note: In the United States, the first (latitudinal) coordinate will always be
an “N” as a prefix (as we live in the northern hemisphere). The second
(longitudinal) coordinate will always have a “W” as a prefix (we live in the western hemi
sphere.) If you are on the east coast of the United States and trying to find a waypoint
through coordinates, then a zero goes right after the “W”. Also, if coordinates are given in
UTM instead of latitude and longitude, then it is easily changed to allow for this. Click on
Menu twice to access the main menu and then select setup. Then select units, press enter
with position format highlighted, and then select UTM UPS option.
4. Once the waypoint coordinates have been manually entered and saved, you can then use
the
Goto
or
Find
function (see previous page) to navigate to that waypoint.
