Careful, you’ll have to do the opposite if you’re transferring magnetic bearings onto your map. The mnemonic that works in all cases is WAvES = West add, East subtract. The map is floppy and waves at the compass. The compass waves BACK at the map. These days, Suunto is also not what it used to be. Owned by Chinese conglomerate Liesheng as of 2022.

Glad it helped!

User problem

Спасибо. у меня действительно нет любимого

Yes, you can just do the maths. But this is a YT instructional video, so I thought it was a good idea to go through the steps individually. I hope this helps.

It's the clinometer. See this video for more details: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/arKCZJemyparqmw.html

Semi-permanent (declination adjustable) compasses (Silva Ranger) were used by the Canadian army way back when I was an infantry soldier. I have one in my hand right now. When you are taking a bearing from a ground feature, the magnetic needle is pointing to magnetic north and the bezel scale is pointing to true north, so you do not need to take declination into account since your compass already is. That is why the army uses these compasses, so soldiers can quickly take true bearings to adjust artillery etc.

If you do not adjust the compass (ie: you only have true magnetic north to go by), do the following: -take the bearing to the land object (the mountain summit, etc.). -if magnetic declination is EAST, then ADD the amount to your bearing, and the sum is the bearing you use on the map. For example, if the mountain summit is at 70 degrees by compass, and magnetic declination is 15 degrees East, then you would add 70+15 and use the bearing of 85 degrees to find the location on the map. -if your declination is WEST, you would subtract the declination amount from your compass bearing measurement, and that difference is the bearing you use on the map. If taking a bearing on the map first, you do the opposite to find the corespondent bearing by compass. So, if east, subtract declination from map bearing. If west, add declination to map bearing. If you adjust the compass, then you don’t do anything. Your magnetic compass corresponds to the geographic north (where Santa lives) or grid north (if you set it to grid north). Be sure you adjust the compass correctly. If you don’t know the difference, don’t adjust the compass. I recommend not adjusting the compass until you have mastered adding or subtracting declination. It will become first nature. Once you master it, you won’t ever adjust the compass. It’s easier this way. Good luck.

Simple: Use the orienting lines only on the map and use the orienting arrow only with the needle.

With A30 (fixed scale) you should set the declination each time you change the bearing.

What is the procedure when putting a sighted bearing onto the map?

I'd be interested to know the answer to that question as well.

Some people only want to take a bearing from a map and follow it and a semi-permanent setting means you don’t have to keep adjusting your compass each time you take a bearing. See this video for more details: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/ntCadMqB37HKd2g.html

OK GOOD ! THANK YOU SO MUCH@@TheMapReadingCompany

For our purposes (walking / navigating with a hand held compass) it's best to use grid north as it saves a lot of time (and maths). The difference between true and grid is caused by trying to project a 3D object on to a 2D map (That's another video I may do at some time 😀) The distances travelled, when walking, make this difference hardly worth bothering about for most people. Obviously if traveling long distances (e.g. flying, sailing, etc.) then the difference becomes important. But I always try to keep my videos focused specifically on land nav so when out for a day's walk you can treat true and grid as the same.

I completed a coastal navigation course presented by the Canadian Yachting Association some years back. The instructor specifically told us to round all bearings for the helmsman to the nearest 5 degrees. He said the graduations on a typical boat compass and the ability of someone to actually steer a small boat better than +/- 5 degrees was problematic.@@TheMapReadingCompany

+2 58 (maybe simpler just to set for 3 east)

May seem a stupid question, but why 2°58'? How do you work that out? Not being facetious or daft, just trying to learn. @@TheMapReadingCompany

Hi Colin, thanks for your email - sorry I missed your subsequent question. I’m going to take a guess here (which may be wrong) but a lot of these types of websites, which give the declination based on the World Magnetic Model, tend to use either the Fortran codes or they may use the Model C (World Magnetic Model C) and this gives two answer to the basically the same question - one of which will, obviously be wrong. The way around this (two answers) is to use take the first digit of the first Fortran code result (in this case the 2) and the fractional of the second (in this case the 0.58). It is REALLY difficult to get some website code to work out declination and it is beyond the capabilities of most individuals. I would suggest using one of the Government or scientific body sites. For example: USA - www.ngdc.noaa.gov/geomag/calculators/magcalc.shtml UK - geomag.bgs.ac.uk/data_service/models_compass/gma_calc.html

Explain yourself, please. What’s better about mils with regards to declination correction?