John: Every household was given its grid reference by means of a postal drop. We then had to get a white-on-green sign made up (at our own expense!) with the grid reference on it and stick it on a post at the end of our driveway. This was a legal requirement.
Hope this helps. John F-L ----- Original Message ----- From: John M. Steele To: U.S. Metric Association Sent: Wednesday, December 30, 2009 7:28 PM Subject: [USMA:46332] Re: 144 years to go.... John, Do they teach you that grid reference to give to first responders or do they determine it by address look up? USNG seems like a good idea but appears to be a bit of a flop here because it is not used for general mapping and no one knows their USNG address. Well, I have mine written down somewhere, but I doubt 1% of families would know it, I can't find a road map marked in USNG (but topographical maps have either that or the underlying UTM grid), and I don't know if my town's first responders could understand USNG coordinates if I could recite them. One of my two GPS units will display it on request, however. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ From: John Frewen-Lord <[email protected]> To: U.S. Metric Association <[email protected]> Sent: Wed, December 30, 2009 1:50:17 PM Subject: [USMA:46331] Re: 144 years to go.... And Canada also uses a metric based grid for first responders. My house in Ontario not only had a street adress, but also a 6 figure grid reference, which emergency services would use to locate it. John F-L ----- Original Message ----- From: John M. Steele To: U.S. Metric Association Sent: Wednesday, December 30, 2009 6:44 PM Subject: [USMA:46330] Re: 144 years to go.... The army uses the Military Grid Reference System (as does NATO) which is a UTM projection using metric grid. Assuming the bad guys are ex-military gone mercenary, this situation would exist today. MGRS is also the basis of US National Grid (USNG) which the Feds are trying to teach at least to first responders as a universal mapping system, in case they are deployed to areas they are not familiar with (forest fires, hurricanes, etc). For those not familiar with it, navigation within 100 km squares is in meters of easting and northing from SW corner, identical to UK Ordnance Survey. Because we are a bigger country, the designation and tiling of 100 km squares is a little different to cover the larger area. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Harry Wyeth <[email protected]> To: U.S. Metric Association <[email protected]> Sent: Wed, December 30, 2009 1:21:28 PM Subject: [USMA:46329] 144 years to go.... Only 144 years to go before SI is implemented in (presumably) the US, according to "Avatar", the latest blockbuster hit. In 2154 the bad guys measure military distances in "klicks" (I hate the term!) and I think there is a reference to meters in one part dealing with firing distances. It is, off topic, a simply beautiful and truly innovative movie, but it would be a waste to see it in other than 3D. Plot is so-so. HARRY WYETH
