Cool info bud! Ive grown so found of the USGI, Id be lost with anything else... however there is this one time, in band camp... Er, wrong story... this one time I got a bum compass and had to do the land nav with a NESW wrist compass. We came in late but we used the "topo" map (off a copier none the less) with terrain features to actually do the course. We were scolded, until they finally verified the compass was waaay off. :-)

Speaking of grid lines, Ive tried for a LONG time to grasp LAT/LON but gave up... Then I discovered UTM and never looked back! Its MGRS, but for sillyvilians!! Easy as lard is greasy! I mastered the system in 5 minutes.

I have the NatGeo software from which I laminate the maps I make, and some grid tools from maptools.com (love them!), I also have my Dakota in UTM (Love that GPS!).

EB