Navigation Articles Compass Navigation Mojosgear - For All Your Flying Needs Shop online for gifts, survival gear, navigation, carabiners, quicklinks, portable weather electronics, books, videos, paragliding and hanggliding equipment and accessories. Finding your way around in the wilderness with a compass isn't really all that hard. It's one of the most basic survival skills, and seems like a daunting task for most people simply because fewer and fewer people in the modern, "civilized" age find reasons to go outdoors. Before learning how to navigate with a compass, first you have to be aware of the different types of compasses available. The simplest and most basic type of compass is the thumb or orienteering compass; these are the classic and most common types you'll see, composed of a magnetic disk with a pointer, and markings on the outer rim of the compass indicating the compass points of north, east, south, and west. Another type of compass is the map compass; this is attached to a map and is meant for more accurate direction finding, whereas the orienteering compass is used when you need to get your bearings quickly. Other derivatives of the normal compass include features like electronic barometers and thermometers, angle and altitude measurers, and nightlights. However, these are features that, while they can be helpful, shouldn't be relied upon. The more features a compass has, the greater the likelihood that heat or impact will damage it. The single most important feature of a compass is simply this: it should be able to tell you which way is north. Navigation Travelling on London's Tube System? Plan all your UK travel info here with Britains official tourism authority. That said and done, we then go on to the absolute basics of direction finding: the compass points. To keep the explaination simple, picture an old school clock. North is 12:00, east is 3:00, south is 6:00, and west is 9:00. Other directions are based on these four simple points. So, given this, the most basic way to use a compass is to remember that the needle always points north. When out in the wilderness, assuming you get lost but know that you headed out due south-east from your camping spot, then traveling in a north-western direction will get you reasonably close to your starting point. Navigation radios available now We carry brand new Navigation radios. Includes antenna & map disc. Wholesale prices available to the public. Most normal orienteering compasses will have a big arrow pointer that is used to align the direction you want to travel in, and a rotating rim with compass points on them. The first thing you do is to rotate the rim until the direction you want to travel in is aligned with the big arrow pointer. Using the example above, you'd rotate the rim until the pointer aligns with north-west. Gpsstockroom- Pay Less for Your GPS Here GPSStockroom Offers a Lowest Price Guarantee for 1200 GPS Products. After making this alignment, you then hold the compass out flat on your palm, and wait until it settles down; the compass will point north. Spin the compass around until the magnetic pointer on the inside aligns with NORTH on the outer rim. This will mean that, by walking along in the direction of the pointer arrow, you will travel in the general bearing you set earlier with the rim. Navigation Navigation at a great deal! Navigation on eBay Motors. Keep in mind however that compasses are prone to magnetic interference; what this means is that compass needles are tiny magnets, and having anything metallic, magnetic, or even electronic near it can throw it off course. When getting your bearings using a compass, make sure that you don't have anything near it that can disrupt it. Even simple things like wearing a metal wrist watch while taking compass bearings have been known to get people irrevocably lost. Compasses tend to shine the most however, when paired with a map. Using a compass with a map is really simple, assuming two things: One, that you know WHERE you are on the map, and two, that you know how to read the map. Using a method of alignment similar to the one given earlier, draw a line on the map from your starting point to the end point. Then, lay the Direction arrow of your compass along this line, and rotate and align the rim's North bearing with the direction North indicated on the map. Lastly, like before, lay the compass flat on your palm and spin it until it's magnetic pointer aligns with North on the rim. Then just walk in the direction indicated by the Direction arrow. Convert Your Navigation Screen to TV/DVD Tvandnav2Go.com can convert your existing factory car navigation screen to a TV/DVD/satellite screen. You paid so much for your navigation unit, why not get the full value out of it? One last thing you should remember is that compasses are also subject to magnetic declination. All compasses point to a magnetic north determined by the earth's magnetic field; maps, on the other hand, are drawn to a geographic north, meaning the north pole. Before setting out, find out if the place you're going to has any magnetic declination; this will usually be expressed as a few degrees of pull to either the west or east. Factor this extra angle into your bearings when rotating the rim towards the Direction arrow. Illustrated Navigation Thoroughly illustrated manual on traditional navigation, electronic navigation (using GPS and radar) and celestial navigation (using sextant). Ainuddin Mohamad is the Webmaster of the Online Reading Center at http://onlinereadingcenter.com which features online reading resources.