To determine your station location, use one of the following
methods:
a. Obtain a USGS 7 1/2 minute topographic map
(1:24000 scale) for
your area. Find your school building and determine the latitude,
longitude and elevation by carefully locating the position on the map
and interpolating the NS and EW distances and the contours to determine
the coordinates.
b. Use a handheld GPS receiver to obtain your
coordinates (the
elevation will be more accurate read from a map). Set the GRS receiver
to decimal degrees and CONUS (Continental US), NAD27.
2) Go to Online Maps (MapServer)
3) Enter city and state,
click "go"
4) Select correct city from
list
5) Zoom in (1:24000 scale)
6) Scroll (red arrows) so
that you location is within the map
area (be sure that location "readouts" at the bottom of the map are
visible on your screen)
7) Move "hand
cursor" so that the end of the finger is directly
over the location of your station
8) Read latitude and
longitude (in degrees, minutes, seconds)
from display
9) Convert lat and lon to
degrees and decimal degrees
10) Using the contours on the
map, interpolate between contour
lines to determine the elevation of your station; convert to elevation
in meters
Also, there may be some confusion in converting lat and lon in degrees,
minutes and seconds to lat and lon in degrees and decimal degrees. To
perform this operation, using a calculator, enter the number of seconds
and divide by 60 (seconds/minute) to get fraction of a minute. Then
add
the resulting amount to the number of minutes and divide by 60
(minutes/degree) to get fraction of a degree. Then add the result to
the number of degrees.
For example, if the lat and lon are: 40 deg 26' 13" (N) and
86 deg 54'
17" (W), the conversions will be:
40.4369 (lat; positive for N) and -86.9047 (lon; negative for W)