I think the problem belongs entirely to Google -- The green arrow is the actual spot.  But the "A" spot is where they zoom in because it's the closest road they can find, so they put you there zoomed in so tight you can't see the green arrow until you zoom out (4 "-" zoom clicks). 

All coords are on roads, right?     

{rant mode on}
What's Google thinking-- you don't have to be a wilderness canoeist or hiker or anything like that to want to see points that aren't on roads!!!
{rant mode off}

-Tom

PS: Another way to examine this Google oddity is to (when in Google maps) right click & choose "What's Here?" in an area not very near a road -- you get a green arrow where you clicked, and an "A" mark at something it can understand better - usually (but not always) a road...

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I was looking at:
"I'd put it at N48 38.544 W91 39.090."

And I assume that's a period at the end. The picture I posted shows the radio button format I used for the PCD.

I get where Marten is coming from too and that seems plausible but between the topos and the aerials and places I've marked before in Q, I expect this stuff to be rather exact so I can only assume I'm doing something dopey and perhaps easy to correct. Don't want to form any bad habits due to ignorance.

What were the GPS coordinates given.  Could it be a format issue: fractional degrees vs fractional minutes vs fractional seconds?

I'm sorry. I thought I added an attachment to my first post.

Ummmmmmmm no.

I have/see a problem I want to understand.

Google was the control - or so I thought. A generic, ubiquitous constant I thought I could go/point to and I now get that part.  The green arrow is close enough I expect but what I really wanted (expected) was something repeatable, for everyone no matter.... It's math. Words depend on what you bring to them but this is math.

There's only ten numbers and who knows how many words and counting. With math, translations should be easy - to the point where someone says close enough. Both have commas to catch your breath but math should be exact until you lose interest after the decimal. IMO.

We have pictures now. Is the math that subjective?

db wrote on Sep 9^th, 2011 at 9:09pm:

So the conclusion is that there's no GPS issue ... Just a problem w/how Google decides to put the mark on a road rather than where you tell it to go.  But the green arrow goes in the real spot.  Right?

In some instances where the GPS waypoints show up 30-100 yards off on the map, it is the map that is wrong. No one could tell until the GPS came along. This summer I was in an area of WCPP where this happened. The trail I marked would show up starting 100 meters out in the water when viewed on the map screen.

This is why a GPS option is to set it on "lock on road." It corrects and puts you on the road and not off to the side. In actual use on the trail, if you are using the same datum as the person who marked the waypoint it should put you really close.

dam GPS formats!  It;s like VHS vs Betamax.

We could not calculate directions between 53005 and 48.642389, -91.651500.