The emergency services my position
What would I say?

You help might save a life.

You could just try telling them.. Or you could see if there are any other options on the GPS that you understand.

Tell them what is says on the Garmin?
North 51 Degrees, 46 Minutes, 5 seconds
West 2 degrees, 33 minutes, 34 seconds

If they don’t understand, ask them for someone who will (like mountain rescue or something) or just tell them to type the latitude and longitude into Google maps. I would be surprised if they don’t understand though as AFAIK it is *the* method for describing an exact point on the earth.

Yacoby has it surely? Pretty straightforward – the same as giving a grid reference from a map.

Can the emergency service work with that? It’s a good question OP, seems that’s a bit of a drawback with the 200 not being able to change it to OS grid.

I believe there are apps for you phone that can display an OS grid reference for an emergency, as an addition to your computer.

Nice edit makes the informative post a lot less condescending.

Parkend, FoD?

Thanks yacoby.. Yeah FOD today but we were on the Black Mountains last weekend and it kinda dawned on me how remote it was..

I heard a few tales of them demanding postcodes 😯 and hope they are a bit more enlightened these days

we were on the Black Mountains last weekend and it kinda dawned on me how remote it was..

If you are going somewhere remote it makes sense to have a route plan and leave a copy with someone telling them when to expect you back. If it’s remote enough chances are you won’t have signal so the emerg serves not understanding you is not your immediate problem.

have a route plan and leave a copy with someone telling them when to expect you back

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlhLOWTnVoQ[/video]

!!

You should make sure how to say the reading on your GPS. Some work in degrees, minutes, seconds. Others work in decimal degrees. Get it wrong and they could be looking for you in the wrong place.

And some even give negative degrees East instead of West.

Having tried to give police scotland a grid reference for ove 10 minutes before, as apparently *every* road has a number or a name and ‘the only road up Glen Lochay, the woods behind the power station, I’m there in a gert big blue and orange transit minibus’ is not acceptable…and the call handler had no idea what at grid reference was. It was only when I fired up my gps and gave lay/long as you have displayed on your screen, did she finally accept that a number can describe location, not road and house number or name. 😆 🙄

I’ve just checked my garmin 500 and it doesn’t give the longitude and latitude as displayed above. Instead it gives a number preceded by ‘sj’ and a second number preceded by ‘BNG’, neither of which can I (or google) recognise as obvious coordinates.

I’m interested in this because I had to be rescued on saturday after a bad fall which I’ve been lucky in getting away with. It was only when I became more lucid and recognised my riding mates that I could tell them (roughly) where we are. It’s since dawned on me that as we all ride with garmins we should be able to pinpoint our location if similar circumstances occur again.

So my question is –
does anyone know what my garmin is showing/any insights into how to get the longitude and latitude showing instead of what I’ve got now?

Cheers

Depends on the call handlers TBH, some will take the co-ords and know what they can do with them, some you’ll have no hope

Last year I called a local police (not the emergency number, mind) from the middle of nowhere: massive field outside a town with just few paths on it. They had no clue when I told them my position based on OS Grid…

There are some simple stand alone apps for iOS and Android that do nothing but display the grid reference. Nice and easy to use.

Also, I always have an OS map when I’m out in the hills so could give road number, house / farm names if required.

I have also heard about folk being asked for postcodes and nonsense like that but I’m sure if you ask for Police > Mountain Rescue and as them to note the reference down and pass it on it would be good enough.

I’ve just checked my garmin 500 and it doesn’t give the longitude and latitude as displayed above. Instead it gives a number preceded by ‘sj’ and a second number preceded by ‘BNG’, neither of which can I (or google) recognise as obvious coordinates.

Grid reference?
SJ and the first two numbers could be the tile;
https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/docs/tile-locator-maps/SJ.pdf
followed by the grid reference itself.
BNG is British National Grid.
I would expect the emergency services to be able to work with a GR. Look at a compass with a roamer and learn grid references.
https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/support/the-national-grid.html
Edit; here you go.
https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/blog/2013/03/map-reading-skills-learn-how-to-use-grid-references/
Along the corridor and up the stairs! That’s how I remember it.

That’s great, thank you!

I can see the logic – they won’t send an ambulance to a location that doesn’t have a proper paved road, and thus generally a postcode will be available.

When I prep RV points for ambulance for casualties at events I have the postcode and the grid ref prepared.

Of course, this doesn’t help you, just an observation, I can understand why they might not be familiar with grid refs.

That’s great, thank you!

You’re welcome!
There is more to map reading than grid references (such as being able to determine where you are by features and landmarks), but it’s an essential skill.

I can understand why they might not be familiar with grid refs.

Do you think that this is more likely in city type areas, rather than those serving the lake district or brecon beacons for example? I can’t imagine that they can do the job in those type of areas without being familiar with OS grids?

tomd – Member

There are some simple stand alone apps for iOS and Android that do nothing but display the grid reference. Nice and easy to use.

I’d like an app that basically does exactly this- hits the GPS, gives you grid ref and lat/long, Something totally idiotproof and not internet dependent. Does such a thing exist? Could be massively useful now that GPS phones are so universal but the skill to read maps etc isn’t.

Completely agree… I can read maps pretty well and could have pinpointed where we We’re. The schoolboy error was a) not taking a map b) being the one that got injured and c) mates who cant read maps anyway!! Will be giving more thought to how I prep for these rides in future…