Compasses

I have seen so many changes in navigation technology over the last half-century or so; it’s really quite amazing … back in high school I learned map & compass land navigation; a few years later I was studying celestial navigation with sextant and chronometer at the Planetarium for a sailing trip that never happened. 25 years ago I bought my first GPS, a marvelous device that could produce latitude and longitude numbers out of thin air, though you still needed a paper map to make any use of them.

All of that is, of course, amusingly primitive by 2024 standards: the simplest cell phone contains a GPS and can summon a map from the vastness of the internet. I carry many gigabytes of maps on mine so that a network connection is never needed, because that’s just how I am.

And yet, with all this sophisticated equipment at my fingertips, almost any time I am out in the field; hiking, camping, activating, somewhere in among all my other stuff there is a compass and a paper map.

That little thing is just barely good enough to keep you walking in a straight line instead of circles while finding your way back to a trail or road. Most of the time that’s all that is needed.

My time studying geology in college back in the 70s introduced me to the Brunton Pocket Transit, a large high-accuracy compass with a few add-ons that add functionality for geological mapping and rough surveying. I carry mine around quite a bit on hikes even though its weight and size are not negligible, sometimes it is fun to practice some of the old skills. I measure dip-and-strike of rock outcrops once in a while, or take bearings on prominent objects, and the sighting system and clinometer can help estimate whether radio signals will clear surrounding hills.

On my way to looking for something else on Amazon I came across the COYOUCO Multifunctional Compass for Hiking … etc. and was struck by its resemblance to the Brunton; after looking more closely at it, I ordered one to satisfy my curiosity. Last week I received it and found it to be remarkably similar and seemingly well made for what it is. Except for a few necessary metal bits it is entirely made of plastic, but I have carried it on a couple of hikes and it works quite well. Long term durability is still an open question, I will update this post as needed, but for now it gets my recommendation if you are looking for a good navigational tool at a very reasonable price.

You might notice that none of the compasses above are liquid filled; I avoid them because as time passes they always develop a bubble which can distort the reading.

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