What Three Words

[TernVI]

Disagree, the OSNG is the best possible grid for mapping Great Britain, a lot of thought went into it. Using Lat/Long on land would cause all sorts of problems, projection and distances for a start.

Most of those problems are solved in the $4 chip in your phone.
The reality is that only specialists use the OSGB grid any more.

 

[penberth3]

Most of those problems are solved in the $4 chip in your phone.
The reality is that only specialists use the OSGB grid any more.

I'm thinking about paper maps. Phones are for making phone calls.

 

[Gary Fox]

I'm thinking about paper maps. Phones are for making phone calls.

Correct!

 

[flaming]

I'm thinking about paper maps. Phones are for making phone calls.

Actually talking to someone is a very tiny % of what phones are actually used for now.

 

[TernVI]

Whatever you use your phone for, anyone who is half serious about their position will have a GPS capable of dealing with all the maths using the WGS84 framework. The sole advantage of OS would seem to be contour lines on maps being on their datum.

 

[Tomahawk]

If you hear a mayday and they come up with three words... "really bad weather"... how do you know if they are close o miles away
But if you hear a mayday and the station says I am at 51°45'46.7"N 1°01'01.0".. and you are in the vicinity of 51.79n 01.0135 E..
You have a chance of knowing you are close enough to render assistance.

 

[Mark-1]

If you hear a mayday and they come up with three words... "really bad weather"... how do you know if they are close o miles away
But if you hear a mayday and the station says I am at 51°45'46.7"N 1°01'01.0".. and you are in the vicinity of 51.79n 01.0135 E..
You have a chance of knowing you are close enough to render assistance.

You heard them on your VHF so you know they're close enough to be interested. I, and everyone I've ever sailed with, would check the position of any serious sounding mayday we heard over the VHF, mainly out of curiosity.

And, frankly, are you really so inundated with W3W Maydays that locating them is a chore for you? I've never heard one.

 

[Boathook]

I sometimes anchor near ///stray.policy.normal and this is using the UK version of W3W . I sorted this location out sitting at home approx 100 miles away.
I personally I think the app is good for land especially in the middle of no where and no postcode and also possibly in built up areas where you can't see any 'address' signs.
When I hear maydays at sea it always coincides with doing something else and I don't get time to write down the coordinates, so hopefully the persons doing the mayday give a general location such as 10 miles south of The Needles.

 

[TernVI]

You heard them on your VHF so you know they're close enough to be interested. I, and everyone I've ever sailed with, would check the position of any serious sounding mayday we heard over the VHF, mainly out of curiosity.

And, frankly, are you really so inundated with W3W Maydays that locating them is a chore for you? I've never heard one.

I've heard MayDay traffic more than 50 miles away.
I've never heard W3W over the VHF either, despite people on forums saying how wonderful it is a few times over the last decade or more.
It's failed to get adopted, people don't use it. It may be the Betamax of position labelling.
Too greedy a commercial model perhaps?

 

[dunedin]

Disagree, the OSNG is the best possible grid for mapping Great Britain, a lot of thought went into it. Using Lat/Long on land would cause all sorts of problems, projection and distances for a start.

We can agree to disagree then, as I can’t see any issues when WGS 84 and Lat/Long used on land.
That is what my phone uses when I am looking at Google Maps or my GN wide set of OS maps, it is what my car sat nav uses, and it is the international standard.
I use OS maps a lot, but never OSGB datum or grid references. And suspect few of the modern generation ever will.

 

[[3889]]

I managed to fall in our local park and when the ambulance crew had sorted me out asked them about W3W the driver said oh we don’t use that end of conversation

What was the driver's name? Not Laika or Gary Fox by any chance?

 

[dunedin]

I've heard MayDay traffic more than 50 miles away.
I've never heard W3W over the VHF either, despite people on forums saying how wonderful it is a few times over the last decade or more.
It's failed to get adopted, people don't use it. It may be the Betamax of position labelling.
Too greedy a commercial model perhaps?

Not sure what you are referring to about “decades or more“ ago as W3W was apparently first launched in 2013, and only started to gain traction and usage in the last 2-3 years.
Nor what the “greedy commercial model“ is for an app that is free?
But hey ho, lots of grumpy old things on here who hate any new technology

 

[PetiteFleur]

I've downloaded the W3W app as it seems a good idea. It was used recently to find someone in North Norfolk who had got stuck in mud whilst walking, he phoned the emergency services who told him to download W3W and they found him very quickly. I've tested it on recent walks and seems to work fine BUT it doesn't update as you walk. Stop, and it gives you your 3 words, move a few yards and you have to open the app again and it gives you 3 more words. But I can see it being very useful in most circumstances, even at sea it will give the rescue people an idea of where you are, even if you do drift away.

 

[TernVI]

Not sure what you are referring to about “decades or more“ ago as W3W was apparently first launched in 2013, and only started to gain traction and usage in the last 2-3 years.
Nor what the “greedy commercial model“ is for an app that is free?
But hey ho, lots of grumpy old things on here who hate any new technology

I thought it was older than 2013, but no matter, people talked about it a lot 5 or 6 years ago.

This whole conversation would not have been out of place 4 or 5 years ago.

It is not free to the people who matter.
You need to think about their business model. It's not something that's done as a freebie by firms looking to make money in other ways.

Has it really gained traction in the last 2 years or have you only just caught up with an old novelty?

 

[dunedin]

I thought it was older than 2013, but no matter, people talked about it a lot 5 or 6 years ago.

This whole conversation would not have been out of place 4 or 5 years ago.

It is not free to the people who matter.
You need to think about their business model. It's not something that's done as a freebie by firms looking to make money in other ways.

Has it really gained traction in the last 2 years or have you only just caught up with an old novelty?

Your last point is a question for the OP, but yes it has achieved a huge traction in the last couple of years - and is quite topical at present. This is very different from its status 4-5 years ago.

Not many Apps like this have been adopted by over 75 rescuer organisations in the Uk and saved multiple lives, let alone very recently being incorporated into the Nav software of Mercedes and BMW cars.

But hey ho, particularly useful on land, more than yachts, and helping a lot of people so that seems a good thing to me. End

 

[Zagato]

Download, great, thanks for that. Hermes should have no excuse now ?

 

[anoccasionalyachtsman]

It is not free to the people who matter.
You need to think about their business model. It's not something that's done as a freebie by firms looking to make money in other ways.

What, like the Portugese a few hundred years ago, The Hydrographers Office, Decca, Loran, Navionics et al?

 

[Juan Twothree]

I managed to fall in our local park and when the ambulance crew had sorted me out asked them about W3W the driver said oh we don’t use that end of conversation
On reflection I don’t know whether the control room might use it but have another form for directing their crew?

They crews don't use it themselves, but the call information sent to them from the control room might well have been determined using W3W.

The ambulances have a terminal onboard that receives details of the call, then opens GPS mapping software showing the quickest route from their current location.

 

[Plum]

I managed to fall in our local park and when the ambulance crew had sorted me out asked them about W3W the driver said oh we don’t use that end of conversation
On reflection I don’t know whether the control room might use it but have another form for directing their crew?

All the emergency services control rooms can accept a W3W position from a caller but the position will then usually be communicated to the front line responder in a different way.

W3W does not replace other methods, it just adds an alternative for those in trouble an easy way to give their position.

edit: sorry have just seen I repeated JT's post.

Www.solocoastalsailing.co.uk

 

[TernVI]

They crews don't use it themselves, but the call information sent to them from the control room might well have been determined using W3W.

The ambulances have a terminal onboard that receives details of the call, then opens GPS mapping software showing the quickest route from their current location.

There are plenty of apps which can send your gps location as an SMS, maybe we should be looking at those?
Much less error prone?
Of course the networks can get the location of the phone anyway.
I don't know how UK emergency call handlers are equipped for that, but it was a big thing maybe 15(?) years ago, US phones started to be required to have some location tech in them. The deal was that when you phoned 911, whoever answered the call would know where you were, and maybe that info would have been used so that the right person answered the call (e.g. when my phone in Southsea is talking to a basestation on the IoW, I get the Portsmouth ambulance, not one which needs a ferry). I mostly moved out of the phone industry not long after so I am well out of date.