Question

does a hand held compass use electromagnets

Answer 1

Not usually. They have permanent magnets just like the ones you steer by. The reason they often have batteries and antennas is for the light to use to take bearings in the dark and sometimes because a radio direction finder antenna is built in.

Answer 2

The needle of a compass is itself a permanent magnet and the north indicator of the compass is a magnetic north pole. In response to the Earth's magnetic field, the compass will point toward the geographic North Pole of the Earth because it is in fact a magnetic south pole.

In this paragraph, it basically says, It can, but not usually.