Okay,
Has anyone ever had a compass start pointing any which way but north? And no, I not talking about the time you were surrounded by M-1a tanks. I have a Brunton (Ranger knocks off) that constantly gives me false readings.
Have a great weekend
John
> Okay,
>
> Has anyone ever had a compass start pointing any which way but north? And no, I not talking about the time you were surrounded by M-1a tanks. I have a Brunton (Ranger knocks off) that constantly gives me false readings.
>
> Have a great weekend
>
> John
In short, "Yes."
My co-worker and I were convinced the other was a moron, stupid, and a complete blockhead...until after pointing at the sun, finding two known monuments, and lots of "I dont know how or why, but that thing is trash," he got a new compass.
Did some research, and it is possible. Soon after, another guy here had his reverse polarity...pointed south instead of north.
Run any compass by a big speaker magnet, and she will go haywire to the hilt!
In fact, if you PLAY with it, beside a big magnet, that will make your dad real mad. I found this out, when I was a kid. He was nearly cussing, SOMETHINGS WRONG WITH THIS COMPASS!
N
Only when there was magnetic interference, iron deposits, or overhead or below ground wires or pipes, or then the times when not paying attention and I was not keeping it level and the needle was dragging. Unless some large magnetic field has interfered with polarity, magnetic compass's are simple and stable.
jud
Supposedly sunspots can affect magnetic readings. Can't recall where I read this (or what the magnitude of the effect is) but maybe I'll look it up over the weekend.
I've seen exposure to strong magnets mess with them too. Time for a new one. We're all going to have to get used to them again, now that our Garmins won't be working anymore.
Maybe a dumb question, but wouldn't being directly on the equator tend to confuse it.
Yeah, I know all about the magnetism interference hence the tank comment, the geosciences degree has to mean something. This just plain does not work. Not in Forest Grove, not in Los Angeles. I'm guessing that it somehow was de-magnetized. Too bad, I have had it for a long time.
Probably a bad pivot bearing(?) is causing this. Mine (Brunton) did the same thing and when I did some research several years ago that is what I come up with. Never did fix it, so it's still in that condition.
Lots of iron in that Columbia Plateau Basalt. Could just be the rock you are standing on.
edit - didn't see your comment about trying it in LA before I posted.
"X" marks the spot
Does the compass look like this?
If you find the right orientation, you can possibly re-magnitize the needle to work right by running it by a strong magnet.
The Forester in Fort Bragg (CA) bought several new Silva Rangers. For some reason they all pointed 10° off. We went to an old tri station with a reference mark. My Silva Ranger checked almost dead on (with the correct declination) and the new ones pointed about 10° off to the right (looking south) and we verified the declination was set correctly. He sent them back.
Had a friend ...
that had a problem with his compass. It always pointed South. Then he realized his fancy new pair of reading glasses was the problem. Bought a pair of those glasses with a neck string and they come apart at the nose bridge to get them on and off. Gues what held them together at the bridge - a magnet.
So my point is, do you have a new set of glasses that might be a problem? Or a metallic pen in your shirt pocket? Or some other new piece of equipment you carry?
"X" marks the spot
daryl moistner likes this
Had a friend ...
or the magnet in your cell phone speaker?
To use a handheld compass
I have to take off my watch and hold it in my left hand. I have a plate and six screws in my right wrist that throws a compass off. My wrist watch will pull the needle off slightly also.
Andy
To use a handheld compass
Mine goes off if I hold it too close to my glasses!
I purchased 10-20 Silva Ranger compii for our work guys several years ago through one of the main forestry supply companies
We always use and specify Quadrant Renger compasses because they make it less likely for someone to screw up a BT bearing trying to convert Azimuths in their head.
After a few weeks someone tried one of these new compii and found out that they were massively defective. The quadrants were numbered clockwise from north 0 to 90 to East (fine) then 0 to 90 again to South (not so fine) and similarly in the NW quadrant.
Also the "mirror" in the lid is actually two plastic 'mirror' pieces glued in and they fall out and are of course not that optically correct. In other words the whole thing was a defective cheap product and we were never able to get the company or the manufacturer to correct the order.
As I recall some US outfit had taken over distribution. It is hard to tell who makes these any more Silva? Brunton? No QC.. Bubbles in most of them too.
Anyway buyer beware...
"X" marks the spot
> Does the compass look like this?
>
>
Blimey, matey!
Stop storing the compass in your silvershield with the Deep1 magnets in the next bin.
To remagnetize the compass, you could try tinkering with a Deep1 magnet and the needle. If it doesn't work, you were going to toss it out anyway. 🙂