sub latlong_cleanup  
# position comes in; has two parts, lat & long, separated by a comma with trailing stuff, degree symbols, etc.  
{
chomp ($_[0]);  #position has trailing cr/lf

$_[0] =~ s/\ W\ /\-/;     # West longitudes are negative
$_[0] =~ s/\ E\ /\ /;     # East longitudes are positive
$_[0] =~ s/N//;           # North latitudes are positive
$_[0] =~ s/S\ /\-/;       # South latitudes are negative
$_[0] =~ s/\'//g;         # both lat and longs have trailing strophe.  remove it.
$_[0] =~ s/\xB0/\./g;     # replace degree character with decimal point (ASCII &#176)

# converts lat/long from deg:mm:ss to decimals
my $minutes;        
my ($lat, $long) = split(/,/, $_[0]);     # split the position into lat/long
  $minutes = ($lat - int($lat)) /0.60;    # "decimal-ize" the minutes
  $minutes = sprintf("%.2f", $minutes);   # only need 2 digits; displays are not that good
  $lat = int($lat) + $minutes;            # put it back together
  
  $minutes = ($long - int($long) /0.60);  # "decimal-ize" the minutes
  $minutes = sprintf("%.2f", $minutes);   # only need 2 digits; displays are not that good
  $long = int($long) + $minutes;          # put it back together
  
  #join the lat/long back to $position; it came in as one field in an array, it probably
  # should go back that way
  $_[0] = join(',', $lat,$long);  
                                            
};