[UW-GIS-L] Dominican GPS Data Value Issue

[janlan at uw.edu]

Hello,
I am trying to map some data from the Dominican Republic.  The person that collected the data from a GPS unit doesn't seem to know what the original coordinate system was.  I wondered if WGS84 UTM Zone 19N might be the most likely.

The pts projected in Google Earth, are near India not the Carribbean.  ie:  Lat:  18.49245 and Long:  70.10843 shows up near India.

An example:
N18.46430 W70.11685,   
He found as about 18 deg 27' 52.30" N and 70deg 07' 02.11"W in Google Earth.
In Decimal Degrees in Google Earth this is about:
18.464528 N and -70.117253 W.

What would account for these differences in coordinates?  

I have seen converters from UTMs and decimal degrees online, but since I'm not sure what the original format was, these are hard to use.

I'm trying to figure out the best way to figure out what the correct GPS coordinates should be, based on numbers like:  18.49245.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you,
Janet