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I would like to start being a little more active by getting outdoors more. My state offers a "water guzzler" program that puts water in remote locations for wildlife. They also publish a large atlas that has all the guzzlers because they can make for great locations to observe wildlife. However, the atlas publishes all coordinates in UTM coordinate format.

Finding these guzzlers is similar to geocaching. But I have yet to find an app or device that can handle entry in UTM. I can find devices that will show me UTM coordinates but I want to be able to input UTM and have the device/app show me the location on the map.

Are there any devices/apps that have UTM as an entry option? I'm OK with someone pointing me to an app, but I think I would prefer a dedicated device instead.

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  • What devices have you tried? Were they the type commonly used for in-car driving directions, or the hand-held hiking type?
    – requiem
    Jul 26, 2014 at 1:18
  • @requiem I haven't tried anything that is hiking-specific per-se, just stuff like Google Earth
    – Unknown Coder
    Jul 26, 2014 at 3:26
  • I notice Google Earth chokes on formats like "10T ET 48858 74333" or "10N 548858E 5274333N", but will take them when corrected to "10TET4885874333" or "10N 548858 5274333"
    – requiem
    Jul 26, 2014 at 5:13

2 Answers 2

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There are many devices that will let you enter in UTM and LatLong coordinates interchangeably. be sure to bring a waterproof map with you too though.

http://www.rei.com/product/869473/garmin-gpsmap-64-gps

http://www.magellangps.com/Store/eXploristSeries/eXplorist-510

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  • I sincerely appreciate the help. I read through the web sites but I can't see where it confirms the UTM entry. How are you certain that UTM can be entered?
    – Unknown Coder
    Jul 25, 2014 at 23:54
  • Indeed, the web sites do not give a ton of detail. Granted, the newer GPS units are so powerful that listing out every feature would take pages. I've used the Garmin GPSMAP 60, 62, and 64 series extensively and any of those models can do the same tricks with UTMs.
    – Scott Hillson
    Jul 26, 2014 at 0:01
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    I think all of the Garmin "outdoor"/"on the trail" models support UTM format. Both displaying it, and entering coordinates. So any of the Etrex, Dakota, Oregon, Montana, Foretrex, Fenix or GPSMAP ranges. Even the really old, basic Etrex Yellow can do this.
    – vclaw
    Jul 27, 2014 at 22:10
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    I really, really like the Garmin GPSmap units, have used them extensively at work with UTM coordinates, you can input them and track and such, they will do exactly what you're looking for.
    – studiohack
    Jul 28, 2014 at 1:15
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    I Own a gpsmap64 myself, and from the support page: "Garmin does have the UTM format on all of its outdoor devices" support.garmin.com/support/searchSupport/…
    – HTDutchy
    Jul 28, 2014 at 13:26
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On mobile devices, the Gaia GPS app allows creating a waypoint using whichever format is currently selected (which includes UTM).

From your computer, you can enter UTM coordinates into CalTopo; this is convenient if you are printing out paper maps. (It also has some ability to annotate maps and save them to KMZ/KML files for use with Google Earth or your GPS.)

Additionally, Google Earth accepts UTM coordinates. However, you must ensure they are correctly formatted (e.g. "10N 548936 5274344").

As hillsons mentions there should be plenty of devices that allow this; I can confirm the Garmin 62s model allows this and would be rather surprised if the other models don't.

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  • +1 for Gaia GPS. For a mobile app, that is pretty close to what I would like to find. Thanks for that, it's a neat little app.
    – Unknown Coder
    Jul 26, 2014 at 3:26

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