Another technique is to glue (use a clear glue that will not fuse the plastic) a piece of luminous tape (used to make "cat-eyes") underneath to make an opaque visibility strip under the grid reader lines. A technique to improve either of the protractor's grid readers is to get some oil based model paint in white, yellow or orange and UNDERNEATH the grid reader scales paint a strip of color to make the numbers stand out. The RM protractor has meter lines from left to right for beginning land navigation students to visualize a simulated inner set of grids lines, but by turning the readers sideways, become a right-to-left grid reader in the same manner as the issue protractor does. The Army issue square protractor has meter marks from right to left so you need only slide the protractor flush from the right to get a reading of map grid coordinates. Problem are #2: Measuring grid coordinates
Placing this string in the center or using the paper edge are not taught in basic enlisted or office training or in Army Field Manuals, either-so several generations of Soldiers are now using bad protractors and are mostly unaware of any techniques to improve their plotting is it a wonder so many Soldiers dred land navigation and express little confidence in their skills? Having dry sheets of paper for this edge is not reliable. Even with a string, the square edge makes it necessary for angled tick marks to be the source of the reading a round compass rose trying to be read off a square piece of plastic! If your azimuth lies in between the tick marks.Another field expedient is to take the straight edge of a sheet of paper, lay it along the two points to be measured and then lay the protractor on top in order to get a reading.
The RM protractor as can be seen in the picture here comes with an elastic string that is tied around the outside edge of the protractor for azimuth measuring. Two knots secures the string to the protractor center but creates a bulge so the protractor will not lay flat on your military topographic map. It takes a 1:50,000 scale map distance of 1,800 meters just to reach the protractor's square edge to get a reading.Īnother self-help technique is to poke a hole in the center and place a knotted string in the center to overlap extend over your map lines for a reading, but this leaves a knot in the center, obscuring the center placement of the original point to be measured from and the string can fall out at the worst possible time. You lose the mills scale for artillery calls for fire and still have to draw extended lines on your map, cluttering and obscuring important details. Often hand trimming of the mils edge results in a sloppy, uneven edge cutting off degree marks.
When measuring a grid angle from point A to point B on a map with the Army protractor, you are often forced to draw and extended line so you can reach the square's edge for a measurement! An improvement somewhat is to trim the mils scale off, but not a significant enough improvement. The RM protractor is round with degrees and mils scales on the outside edge. Army protractor (GTA 5-2-12) is a square shaped piece of clear plastic with mils scale and degrees on the outside edge of the square. Army SNCO, Rudy Madayag and offered in military clothing sales stores (MCSS) is far superior, easier to use and more accurate. The round and improved square map protractors produced by retired U.S. The current square issue map protractor ( GTA 5-2-12) is cumbersome to use, resulting in added time in planning, and inherently inaccurate resulting in map errors that can cause units to get lost and rounds to fall on friendly forces.