on my sonar/gps which coordinate system do I use? Degrees or degrees/minutes or deg/min/sec and when this is set, will it always stay set? thanks

Degrees and minutes should suffice. You will not ever use seconds.

Most GPS's you can change the coordinate system at will. Sometimes you may need different systems when going between GPS and Google Earth, fishing maps and other products/software since some are set in their format.

just know how to convert decimal degrees into degrees, minutes, seconds - it'll come in handy when playing with maps and software.

Hey, this is my 1,000th post! I don't feel any different...

http://www.fcc.gov/mb/audio/bickel/DDDMMSS-decimal.html

that will take to a converter

I'm saving that - been doing it the old fashioned way...

Thanks for the converter Russ---saved that, like Ranger I had been using the old calculator.

That is too much work!!! I learned to do by hand at work but now with computers I do as little math as possible.