Car compass

Fraid not. You need one calibrated to work upside down.

No, seriously, it won't be accurate.

Hi Helga,

You will not see any difference in the way it works and you will NOT have any problems at all with your car compass.

Helga,
A compass doesn't discriminate between northern & southern hemisphere, all it wants to do is point North. It will work as normal.

Rob

The only thing you'll need to do is repeat the calibration process to ensure it is accurate..

The magnetic variation in Australia could well be different that Europe.

The calibration process sorts that out.

Your compass should work ok as I have one I bought when living in the USA and it works here. It's fluid filled though. There are differences between northern & southern hemisphere compasses. Here's an excerpt from a web page I found:

"An interesting detail is that there are northern- and southern-hemisphere compasses. This has to do with the fact that the magnetic field lines, to which a compass needle aligns, point into the earth at the north and south magnetic poles. In the northern hemisphere the north end of the needle is pulled downwards, and the south end is counterweighted to balance the needle. When you use a northern hemisphere compass in, say, Australia, the south end of the magnet is pulled downwards by the magnetic field, and is also heavier than the north end - resulting in a needle that catches and drags on the bottom of the compass housing when the compass is held horizontal."

rgds, Peter

my compass only seems to work reversed. I know that is not going to surpirse some of you but it's had my wondering too...

It is mounted up high next to the rearvision mirror. I can only see one side of it. I've tried thinking of that one side to be the "back" however it's all t confusing....

if I am pointed East and when I look East I see the the E on the "back" of the compass, but I'm sure I should be seeing the W. If i was to go East as per reading a compss looking down on it I would be heading West.

Maybe it;s some sort of special reversed one for mounting high in cabins. Placed that close to screen one cant twist thier head around to see the front of it.

the trickiest bit is travelling sou-sou-west, i really cant have a beer untill my direction right



i have a airasian-win compass

A compass used in the opposite hemisphere to which it was calibrated will most likely want to tilt the card causing it to stick.

Hi mates,

you all are really good. I´ve got many responses and now, typically female, I´m wise as before. LOL I´ll test this modern stuff on our next trip to Down Under. For our own safety I take my old Recta DP65 with me. It´s an inconvenient handling and useless in a car, but it works all over the world, even in Australia. LOL
Thank you very much to all of you.

Cheers
Helga