Converting ME coordinates to format used in the air

[Bahger]

I want to give the player coordinates of a unit's position but in the form he can enter in his CDU, which appears not to be the format used in the ME when the cursor position corresponds with coordinates at the bottom of the screen. I'd like to give the player the same format as JTAC would use. Can anyone advise re. conversion? Many thanks.

[Frederf]

You could use UTM or LL. The ME/MP does fractional minutes in "seconds" instead of tenths of minutes. Every 6 seconds is a tenth of a minute.

[Bahger]

Thanks but could you possibly give me a bit more of an idiot's guide to how I translate those coordinate numbers in the ME into whatever format JTAC would use? I'm afraid I'm not familiar with UTM or LL.

[nomdeplume]

http://www.earthpoint.us/Convert.aspx

 

That seems to do a pretty good job of converting to MGRS coordinates.

 

You can use the coordinates from the editor easily enough using the format e.g. 43 10 21 for latitude and 040 19 35 for longitude.

[Frederf]

ME coordinates might be something like

N40°39'43'' E043°21'7''

 

The jet "LL" (latitude, longitude) coordinates would be

N40°39.717' E043°21.117'

 

You see the difference is just the partial minutes part. In the ME partial minutes are given in seconds (60ths of a minute). 5'30'' is 5.5'

 

In the example above, 43'' (43 seconds) becomes 0.717' (0.717 minutes) because 43'' is 43/60th of a minute. 43/60 is 0.7166666666 or 0.717 when rounded. Similarly 7'' is 7/60th of 1' or 0.116666666'.