There are times when you need to know exactly where your family members or friends are. They are in another county or state, broken down on the side of a highway, they have just left some party that is not for them and need a ride home, or they are at some campus environment that just got “locked down”. They also could be out boating, hiking, hunting, fishing, running, walking, shopping, eating in a restaurant, at a movie theatre, at a mall. For whatever reason, you desire to know exactly where they are or they wish to tell you. Street address alone does not provide sufficient precision. What does? Ans. US National Grid (USNG).

In just thirteen(13) characters, position may be advised by text or over the phone. (13) characters for any location worldwide. Those (13) characters will advise position to a precision of 33 feet square, the size of a large room. That sure beats a street address which could apply to a whole complex of buildings that are unknown to you or them and is insufficient to specifically assist police or fire-rescue, if they were responding. Street address does not apply to major highways, when off road or even in the wilderness. In many cases details matter; this is one of those times. If using a smart phone, the thirteen (13) characters can be captured and sent from that phone in about six(6) quick taps; in very few seconds.

Why USNG? USNG is less confusing than other coordinate options and is easier to read or hear over the phone or radio and is easy to send by text. USNG is the national standard coordinate system of the USA. If you are not in the USA, USNG’s parent, in effect, is Military Grid Reference System (MGRS) which has been in use since 1949. Thus, veterans know this system. Both coordinate systems work everywhere except at the North & South Pole. USNG is the land search & rescue coordinate system which was designated as such in 2011. Many states are working with USNG such as Florida, Minnesota, Missouri, Iowa to name a few. So, if you are going to use a coordinate system, why not use one that is simple and established as the standard by many organizations? Other solutions exist of course, like sending a pin location, but can that information be specifically advised to dispatchers, as one example? Not likely. Thus, interoperability is a consideration.

Back to you and your daughter, son, wife, husband, significant other or close friend. You need to prepare in advance for the day that they need to advise their location from afar in order for you to react to it. Have them put an application (app) on their smart phone that displays USNG or MGRS. As of this writing, search your app store for ‘MGRS’. There are free apps and there are those that cost a few dollars. One that is well known, for the iPhone, is: MilGPS which will be demonstrated as one example.

Configure MilGPS for MGRS 10 meters and show each user how to send their position via text by pressing the button in the upper right when on the main screen.

Note the 1 meter selection is not more precise as typical hand-held GPS devices are not accurate to 1 meter. They are typically accurate to 3-5 meters.

After depressing the ‘forward’ button, upper right, a selection screen pops up and provides the user three(3) options.

Copy Location, Copy Location & DTG, Add Waypoint. The first or second are the proper choice for now.

The last step is to open the text, email, Twitter or other transmission application and paste the contents of the buffer. Select recipients and Send it. This entire sequence can be done in very few seconds. It can be done in an emergency, or it can be done while the user is at some new place that is interesting. During major emergencies, local cell sites get overloaded for voice calls. During those times, text may continue to function.

Back at home or office or even while out & about the parent, significant other, friend etc. receives the USNG character string accompanied by the reason via phone or text message. What is done with the information? Well, on a tablet or home computer have Mission Manager saved as a favorite link. Simply enter the coordinates in the white entry box, upper left and depress [Find]. The result will be a map with the location of that entered coordinate. When first testing this site, optionally turn on grids, upper center but be sure to set the coordinate system to USNG in the lower right. The site usually remembers those settings. You will also see other optional coordinate systems.

Example: A family member is northbound on I-35 and they get a flat tire…and have no spare. They call to tell you. What is the first question you ask? Where are you? of course. So, at that point do you discuss how far they are from the last known anything, the mile markers that they have not been paying attention to, etc.? Instead, what if they just text you: 15T WL 0273 8755? How simple and succinct is that? You can use that coordinate on smart phone apps of your own or you can enter it into Mission Manger and see their exact location.

Mission Manager is a very capable web tool with many possible layers & functions. One neat feature is the ability to link to Google Street view. You can see where your family member or friend is as they see it and as you will see it if your are heading to pick them up. Further exploration of what it can do, such as convert any location to USNG coordinates, is encouraged.

Summary: when location details matter, use a tool that can advise the proper precision. Street address alone is not it. Street address certainly may be good enough a lot of the time. Many times it is not. Large areas, ballparks, campuses, stadiums, major highways, while hiking, inland boating, walking, are not best described by street address. The option of using a coordinate system is not new to many. However, a coordinate system that designed for land, is easy to speak and text may be. Use the national standard coordinate system quickly and easily. US National Grid; it is the language of location.