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Main Section => Welcome to our virtual Pub Meeting ... => Topic started by: oilstain on May 13, 2022, 08:54:30 AM
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I keep getting emails regarding "What 3 Words :stars
Seems a great idea to pinpoint a spot on a map far better than postcode but can you input 3 words into a sat nav, or do you need a special device or handle you phone when driving and risk a ban/fine or am I missing a trick?
Perhaps I'm just to old for new ideas :thud
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Why is three words better than a post code, may we will soon be putting three words on letters instead of the post code…. Just imagine that for a second. Your address followed by…. Up. Yours. Postman. :-* :-* :-*
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.... because What3Words pinpoints your position to 3x3 metre square using GPS.
(postcodes, and house numbers just don't cut it.)
What3Words has already proved to be a life saver :first
Not convinced or unsure what it is - read What3Words (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What3words)
:RHD
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Why is three words better than a post code, may we will soon be putting three words on letters instead of the post code…. Just imagine that for a second. Your address followed by…. Up. Yours. Postman.
Most if not all emergency services use it. e.g. if you're injured while fell-walking the Mountain Recue will know exactly where you are.
I have noted my own What 3 Words just in case I need to call the Ambulance service.
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I have it on my watch ... just have to press a button.
But like all these things, if you can't get a mobile signal you're stuffed.
Ironically if you are up a mountain you have abetter chance of a signal than on the North Norfolk coast.
Same with my car that has Emergency Assist. It calls the ambulance and Ford if I'm in trouble AND there's a signal - fortunately in most places there is.
But knowing my luck there won't be when I'm in trouble :thud
Most people can't do map references, it's not taught anymore - only people over a certain age can do it :stars
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can you input 3 words into a sat nav, or do you need a special device or handle you phone when driving and risk a ban/fine or am I missing a trick?
Typically, the three words to geolocate a person or place are generated from an app that is downloaded to a smartphone. An app is shorthand for a software application, or program, available to install from the app store aligned to the type of smartphone a person has.
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W3W must be treated with the utmost caution.
The tiniest spelling mistake can cause the result to be many miles away.
here.pear.were is going to sound the same as hear.pair.weir over the emergency telephone, and take longer to spell phonetically than a National Grid Ref.
It has it's place.
Chris.
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Of course, National grid and Postcode only apply in Britain.
I found W3W useful when someone was doing a club relay. I had the W3W for my tent at 6D Handley, they popped the items inside my tent while I was out laning.
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The tiniest spelling mistake can cause the result to be many miles away.
here.pear.were is going to sound the same as hear.pair.weir over the emergency telephone, and take longer to spell phonetically than a National Grid Ref.
Wise words Chris.
However its very simple to find a sequence of words easier and safer to say over the telephone. All you do is move the curser on the screen to another nearby square until you find three suitable words.
Fred
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New Defender has W3W on its sat nav. Awesome for locating a 3 m square piece of planet earth!
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Are the three words always in English?
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They seem to be. Currently at Pencil-Rush-Hungry having a beer outside the Vic 👍
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If you read the What3Words bunff when setting it up you can choose what language you want the app to work with.
:cheers
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What3words is brilliant, recently had to pick up a machine that was in a agricultural building in the middle of nowhere on a 1000 acre farm, postcode was useless nearly a mile out, asked for the W3W code to find exactly where I had to go. Makes it a lot easier when you are towing a trailer on narrow roads with nowhere to turn round to know precisely where you are going.
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One really useful feature of W3W is the ability to export the location to a 3rd part navigation app like Waze.
I'm a big fan and use both all over the world. I even used both in Kathmandu just before the first lockdown - worked a treat.
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If you read the What3Words bunff when setting it up you can choose what language you want the app to work with.
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But it's the language used by the receivers at the other end that matters surely? The local police say in Kathmandu or Mecca will go to the spot using their own language. That's not going to be a precise repeatable translation of the English or Bulgarian three words used by the source of the tip-off.
I should have thought there has to be a single language underlying the whole thing, if even spelling mistakes create mistakes?
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Well I'm a big fan and find it works perfectly for me. Twice in the last 12 months, I've used W3W to direct emergency services to a specific remote location. Both were in far off lands where English is not widely spoken and in one case, was to direct a medivac helicopter to the top of a mountain in the Balkans.
It may not be perfect, but its a very useful additional weapon to our armoury. Also, common sense dictates that one might just check the text and address to be sure it is where you think it should be. They are random, so if its wrong, it will be very obviously wrong.
Try punching in Land.Rover.Defender. Couldn't have got a more appropriate location if you tried.
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There are some places you just wouldnt want to admit to being. https://tinyurl.com/mk53w7he
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Like many things it's only as good as the information put in. Recently a friend programmed his satnav for a 1/2 hour journey with W3W. Set off and an hour later we where further from our destination than when we set off. GIGO!
Alec
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I think W3W is standard in JLR sat nav now.
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After having read through all of this hubbub I went ahead and downloaded it. It'll be interesting to see what happens.
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After having read through all of this hubbub I went ahead and downloaded it.
Me too Correus.... I've entered a couple of obscure, difficult to find addresses, and it seems to work very well.
I'll give it a go on my phone's sat nav next time I'm out & about, just to see how effective it is in real time and real driving conditions.
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Me too Correus.... I've entered a couple of obscure, difficult to find addresses, and it seems to work very well.
I'll give it a go on my phone's sat nav next time I'm out & about, just to see how effective it is in real time and real driving conditions.
You're further along than I am. I'm still reading though it and thinking "witchcraft".
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Regarding the issue of mistyping , you don’t need to. There is a button on the screen ( in the W3W app) which says “share” , press that and it gives the option to send as a text for instance. I’ve just tried it and it works a treat . The only trouble is now SWMBO knows where I am :thud
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Series Land Rover is on the north western coast of Australia
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Regarding the issue of mistyping , you don’t need to. There is a button on the screen ( in the W3W app) which says “share” , press that and it gives the option to send as a text for instance. I’ve just tried it and it works a treat ...
Thank you.
Considering the phonetic alphabet was created, developed, and is still in use today, because words by themselves can be difficult to decipher, use of words as an emergency location device ran a definite second to the UK Ordnance Survey National Grid Reference, in my view.
Knowing there is a 'share' facility becomes the most useful tip about W3W I have ever seen; it makes it much more reliable.
I am fortunate to live, work, play, and will probably die, in the UK, so the OS NGR will do me fine.
I understand that there is a Military Grid Reference system that covers all the world, I'm a bit hazy about it but here is a Wikipedia article that explains the details. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_Grid_Reference_System)
Regards.
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Two bits of caution (in addition to the problems with saying words over phone etc) with this as I had some experience of it failing when used in mountain rescue environments.
It doesn’t give you a margin of error like a real navigation system - so if for example your phone has just enabled gps to use it you can be a long way out. And as it doesn’t give you the error you don’t know that - a real gps system will give a plus or minus by so many metres or miles or whatever.
Second - it’s a buisness - they have been corrected in the past for claiming W3W gas saved someone when actually it was a long way out and teams had used other methods to actually find people. - but they get press releases out very fast and deal with facts later.
I would say use it if you like but dont rely solely on it. Certainly never in a place where navigating correctly is a matter of safety. Like a lot of tech the real issue is when people rely completely on something that should only ever be an add on to doing it right.
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Full 8 Figure Grid Reference followed by the National Grid Reference.
Absolutely no margin for error.
W3W has plenty of scope for error as mentioned.
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I think there is a time and a place for both proper grid coordinates and W3W.
For example - If I'm in a town picking up one of my children, I don't expect or need to decipher grid coordinates and people might look at me somewhat strangely if I'm wandering round Guildford with an OS map and a Silva compass. W3W is a really quick and simple method of directing me to a specific location - especially if address information is sketchy.
The sheer fact that all the emergency services can trace people using W3W now and from my own experience, appear to struggle using grid coordinates suggests that the concept is here to stay.
If I am doing one of my trans-African expeditions, following Waze and W3W is not an option. Lack of comms apart from an expensive sat phone kills that off immediately. GPS and a good map can't be beaten!
My dad once taught me how to navigate using a sextant with readings off the sun or the stars. I wish I'd paid more attention, because its still a useful skill to have.
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In suspect the problem these days is that many people dont have a clue what a grid reference is nevermind an 8 figure one. If the cant get an instant answer from their phone they are stuck.
Me, I like maps, I can look at them all day, some of my favourites are ones of the lakes and Scotland that belonged to my great uncle and were printed around 1900. They dont have contour lines, they have hachure shading which makes them look 3D, the hills really leap out of the paper.
Peter
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Any form of navigation that prevents a row with the wife is great!! :-*
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In suspect the problem these days is that many people dont have a clue what a grid reference is nevermind an 8 figure one. If the cant get an instant answer from their phone they are stuck.
Me, I like maps, I can look at them all day, some of my favourites are ones of the lakes and Scotland that belonged to my great uncle and were printed around 1900. They dont have contour lines, they have hachure shading which makes them look 3D, the hills really leap out of the paper.
Peter
I absolutely LOVE old maps! I have several battlefield and pilgrimage map sets from the 1920s. For more modern maps I like USGS topographic maps, but for ease of use the gazetteer versions are great.
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I absolutely LOVE old maps! I have several battlefield and pilgrimage map sets from the 1920s. For more modern maps I like USGS topographic maps, but for ease of use the gazetteer versions are great.
you may enjoy this website, showing the UK though, but others might find it interesting too. see how many railways and brick yards have vanished and how large towns have grown
just zoom in and move around, others in the UK can see what used to belong, before their house was built even
https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/side-by-side/#zoom=7&lat=52.74908&lon=-0.50339&layers=168&right=BingHyb
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Gol- dang- poop means I'm in my drive working on my 109.
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you may enjoy this website, showing the UK though, but others might find it interesting too. see how many railways and brick yards have vanished and how large towns have grown
just zoom in and move around, others in the UK can see what used to belong, before their house was built even
https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/side-by-side/#zoom=7&lat=52.74908&lon=-0.50339&layers=168&right=BingHyb
Nice... thanks for sharing. :tiphat
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Those of a more childish mind (like me) can always use four king maps. Does the same thing as W3W but using four swear words for each 3m square instead- some are quite imaginative.
Only covers UK so far and I doubt you can give them to Royal Mail to get a parcel delivered.
Probably better you don’t post your results here either.
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:o
Four king maps, that is brilliant... :-X :-X
Craig.
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:-X :-X
...Four King maps appeals to my childish sense of humour ;)
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you may enjoy this website, showing the UK though, but others might find it interesting too. see how many railways and brick yards have vanished and how large towns have grown
just zoom in and move around, others in the UK can see what used to belong, before their house was built even
https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/side-by-side/#zoom=7&lat=52.74908&lon=-0.50339&layers=168&right=BingHyb
Thanks, can spend some time checking out known places on this site....
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I'll put a view on this from the Emergency Services side. We use this in the Coastguard as another means of identifying a location. When we receive a call out, we get a set of details provided to us by the ops room. Regardless of what the caller has said, the ops room will always, 100% of the time give us a 6 figure grid ref to RV at. All of us have an OS mapping tool provided anyway, so finding location by that is easy enough, and we all know how to read a map.
If the caller has provided a W3W then we will also be sent that. However at the ops room end they will also have converted that into a 6 figure grid as well.
We'll also usually get a descriptive location - eg "RV with police at the doughnut shop on the pier....".
What we find is that there is a definite age split. We only really tend to get sent a W3W location if we're called to a younger person - generally the "more mature" people don't use it. This also goes for the age split in the team - the younger team members will happily navigate to the location using W3W, whereas, being in the older category (!) I default 100% of the time to OS maps, as it's what I'm used to using walking across Dartmoor.
Regardless, the more info we get, the better chance we'll arrive at the right place !