In reply to Hornster:
> Will a compass bought in the northern hemisphere work in the southern hemisphere? I heard that it won't as compasses in the northern hemisphere are magnetised specifically for the northen hemisphere and vice versa for southern hemisphere compasses.
The issue is the magnetic dip: in one hemisphere (can't remember which is which), the north end of the needle points slightly upwards; in the other downwards. So the needles can be balanced for one or the other.
In practice: I have used the same Silva Type 3 compass both in Europe and in Australia, and it works fine. You maybe have to tilt the baseplate a bit, but no big deal. You would probably have a problem if your compass had a bubble in it though, as seems to happens when they get old. In that case, tilting the base plate would cause the bubble to interfere with the needle and it would be a fiddly business getting a stable reading.
