Repolarisation of compass

  • This topic has 2 replies, 1 voice, and was last updated 7 years ago by Sharon Brandford.
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    • #21315 Reply
      marie henderson
      Guest

      I managed to reverse my compass polarisation in the hills (no big drama as I had backup and knew where I was meant to be going so spotted it was wrong way round straight away). But a compass that thinks north is south is not optimal. So took it for a trip to bivouac who applied their ‘big magnet’ trick and its now a happy compass again. You can do this at home if you have a strong magnet – which would be fun but I need the compass more than I need a strong magnet in my life. So it was nice to be able to take it in to the store I bought it from and despite ‘act of idiot’ (me) they just used the magic magnet and sorted it. Note silva (my compasses brand) say they will fix such at no cost, hence reason for taking it in for a try to see what they could do.

      It was fun to see a compass repolarisation in the field and a important lesson for me to keep my compass away from the magnetic drink tube pack connector (yes I am stoopid, but hopefully I have now learnt). As long as you practice location awareness its no big drama on the day – and if you are OT you need to keep in mind all tools will fail sometime anyways, so do your best to be ready to cover for such.

    • #21549 Reply
      Brian Goodwin
      Guest

      You could have used your sewing needle from your medical kit. Float it on a leaf in a bowl of water. A little tricky if you are bush bashing but I am sure you could manage.

    • #21551 Reply
      Sharon Brandford
      Guest

      Hi I had the same issue, and was glad for tramping buddy’s functional compass. It was a tad perplexing till I worked out it was going on! Yes, the magic Bivouac magnet worked. They were most helpful. Seems repolarisation can occur if compass lies close to a device with a speaker (think phone). Think carefully where you stow your phone and compass.

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