How to read this lat/long fix

[packersrule2]

I was wondering if anyone could tell me how to decipher the following coordinates into normal lat/long:

36-31-34.740N / 075-30-42.950W

It's supposed to be offshore Atlantic, but I have no idea what each section stands for. Thanks in advance!

Jeff
VA Beach, VA

[fungus]

I was wondering if anyone could tell me how to decipher the following coordinates into normal lat/long:

36-31-34.740N / 075-30-42.950W

It's supposed to be offshore Atlantic, but I have no idea what each section stands for. Thanks in advance!

Jeff
VA Beach, VA

Jeff,

After much searching I came across this website for converting United States National Grid (USNG) / Military Grid Reference System (MGRS) to Latitude and Longitude;

http://www.legallandconverter.com/p50.html

Your co-ordinates work out as follows:

Latitude & Longitude
36.526317 / -75.511931 (Decimal)
36° 31' 34.74" N / 75° 30' 42.95" W (Degrees/Minutes/Seconds)
Once you see it written in this manner it becomes obvious. The only real 'conversion' was to express the position in decimal form as well as degrees/minutes/seconds. All I did was to split your figures and enter them into the appropriate section.

Apparently it is the location of a military reporting waypoint (navaid) sth east of Virginia Beach (near Norfolk, Virginia) which by the looks of it seems to be close to your location and is as follows:

Fix Name: KNOTS
Identifier: KNOTS
Lat/Long: 36-31-34.740N / 075-30-42.950W (36° 31' 34.74" N / 75° 30' 42.95" W)
State Name: OFFSHORE ATLANTIC
Fix Category: Military
Fix Use: MIL-REP-PT
ARTCC: ZDC
Pitch: No
Catch: No
Fix/Rad/Dist:
NTU/135.00/31
Charts: MILITARY SID

the only map reference to it that I could locate is:
http://www.fallingrain.com/waypoint/US/KNOTS.html (which isnt much)

Using http://skyvector.com/ maps this seems to place it just inside what looks like restricted airspace 'W-72A' roughly sth of high altitude waypopint 'FUMES' intersecting a line east of waypoint 'KW39Y' (obviously it wont appear on their charts as they are civil, not military). This all may seem far more than what you asked for but I found it an interesting exercise.

Regards and hope this helps,
Gregg