How to use a compass

How to use a compass

Here’s one link on the subject: http://www.learn-orienteering.org/old/

And all most of us want to know is like which way is north, or other such “cardinal” directions, like east, west, or south. When the wind is blowing where you live, is it from one direction or the other, is one example. In my case, I can watch the flags on the flagpole to figure that out, having already gotten my directions from a compass. In general, if the wind is coming from my south, then things will probably get warmer; but if the wind is coming from my north, then things will probably get colder, like cold Canadian or Siberian winds are coming my way. And if there is no wind, that often means something else, too.

And some compasses can get pretty fancy, too; like one can use them for simple survey purposes. Once I used a compass to do a survey (around 2 KM and over rough terrain) and ended up within 30 meters of the location (an iron stake drove into the ground in the old oxen yard). Now that was pretty good to me, and a thrifty way to do things, too. Think of it as a century old sleuth hunt, and my compass sure helped me along the way, too. Heck, I even found a new cave (to me) on the trip, too. Now the yellow jacket stings we got, too, were not appreciated.

I even had one compass become part of the perimeter road at Guantanamo Naval Base in Cuba  years ago. Bummer.

So get yourself a compass or two as a nice tool to have if times get hard. And again, just knowing which way is north can work to your advantage, in the long run. Just do that, and forget the compass in that case. Said another way, knowing general directions is to your advantage.