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Funny how ubiqutious Garmin is in this forum. I was a lowrance owner (airmap 100) and now own a GPS V. I love my garmin but I do miss my airmap and the "Lowrance" feel. Although you dont see much Lowrance info on here, people would do themselves a favor by considering them. Compair price/feature set and I think for GPS's that have the features of the IFINDER you wont find a better value. I would probably have one if I didn't decide I "had" to have autorouting. If Lowrance sold something to compete with the 76CS (and didnt' use lithium batteries for memory back up) I would be right there. Just my 2 cents and my honest opinion so no flaming please.

So, Ifinder has flash memory...Thats news...I would love to have an Ifinder in my hands to use for a few days to see how I like it. How do you like it compared to your gpsV? (not counting the autorouting).

I dont have an Ifinder but I did have an airmap100. I really liked the "feel" of my airmap 100 and now that I have my garmin gpsV I miss some of the features I had. The airmap basemap had many more steams and ground features. Probably due to it being a gps for flying. I find my self missing those increased land features. I could buy a topo map for my garmin but then I couldn't use the street level auto routing. (guess you have to choose your features...this is not a detraction for either unit...just an observation). Of course, I have many more features with the gps V that the lowrance didnt' have...just that I miss some of my features that my lowrance had. One big problem I had was that my 10yr lithium memory back up battery went bad after about 2 years. Lowrance woudln't make good on it and this really turned me away from lowrance. Garmin doens't need a batery to keep its memory so in my opinion, a better design. Your ifinder isn't waterproof either...dont know how much of a problem this is but its nice to know that if I drop mine in the water it wont ruin it. (probably only an issue for boaters). I do like your big memory card and if not for the lithium battery I would have considered the ifinder more strongly due to my liking my airpmap 100.

I had this happen due to my AM/FM built into my 1994 grand Am. It was only on one particular FM station (maybe an AM one I cant remember) but it would reduce the sensitivity of my GPS to the point it would loose lock. Apparently, some IF inside the AM/FM just match some critical frequency of my Garmin V enough to degrade its reception or screw up some intermediate frequency inside the Garmin. Todd

So besides size, what is different in the 76CS as opposed to the 60CS?

Cant compare the units however, my first gps was a lowrance (airmap 100)... It was great and had some features I miss now in my garmin gps V My 10yr lithium memory backup battery went bad after 2 yrs. Lowrance gave me the cold shoulder. they still use a lithium battery for memory backup....I wouldn't buy another due to this and also them not helping me when mine went bad.

Here's a range chart That I looked up....showing powers and such This is taken from this page Simpletons guide to radio

So, how does everyone get rid of old flourecent bulbs? Its always been a dilema for me.....and I've alwasy had to break them and put them in the trash..now I find out I've been a polluter!! Do they take them at recycle centers?

You may be right - I may be crazy.... Oops... I'll stop singing now.... Hmmmm. Well, I was looking at the other angle - what would it take to create the same "brightness" at the receiver. I assumed it would take 4 the power to create the same brightness at twice the distance, but if it takes 4 the voltage instead then it would also take 4 times the current to feed the transmitting antenna and we'd be left with needing 16 times the power - a square of a square. But that doesn't sound like the right answer ....Four times the power for double the distance sounds more reasonable. Yeah, I was thinking Db like P1/P2=10log(V2*I2/V1*I1) But I dont think thats what we want cause we're not talking Db's I promise I'll look this up soon and get to the bottom of it...I do remember that rule of thumb of 10times output power to double your signal at the radio...Just can't argue it just yet.... Stay Tuned!!!

You may be right.... My first message was just restating a old "rule of thumb" that I had logged away "upstairs". Doing a little review the formula is P=1/(x**2) So indeed this would seem to indicate the 4 times rule (not 10 times). I'm at work now so can'tresearch this further now, However, reciever sensitivity is measured in microvolts and so maybe the discrepcancy here is the conversion from "power" seen at the reciever to "volts" at the reciever. Not sure at the moment. Maybe we should post this in the amateur section and get some more "enlightened" responses. In any case, I appologise for opening my mouth before I enguaged my brain...*grin* (I'm sure this is the last time that will happen..) hahaha You may be right.... My first message was just restating a old "rule of thumb" that I had logged away "upstairs". Doing a little review the formula is P=1/(x**2) So indeed this would seem to indicate the 4 times rule (not 10 times). I'm at work now so can'tresearch this further now, However, reciever sensitivity is measured in microvolts and so maybe the discrepcancy here is the conversion from "power" seen at the reciever to "volts" at the reciever. Not sure at the moment. Maybe we should post this in the amateur section and get some more "enlightened" responses. In any case, I appologise for opening my mouth before I enguaged my brain...*grin* (I'm sure this is the last time that will happen..) hahaha

In general it takes 10 times increase in transmitter power to double your range. So if a 1 watt transmitter/reciever combo can transmit 1 mile max then for them to get to two miles the transmitter would have to up its power by 10 times (10 watts). Power output on these radios is a minor concern. Just think of the batteries you would use up running 10watts instead of 1 watt just to double your transmitting distance. Transmission range is really much more complicated than that. Transmitter distance measurements are subjective. How far you can transmit depends much on how sensitive your recieving station is and how much "noise" is present on your frequency and mostly "line of sight" considerations. What trees, hills, buildings are in your way (at FRS frequencies especially).

They do that some times....Usually when you have a long route or if there are many options for the route. I dont know why....probably runs out of memory

better check your connections speed and protocals. 19meg download in about 30 to 40 minutes on mine..

If you have topographical maps loaded then at every turn in the river you place a waypoint....then you build a route up from waypoint to waypoint. Your ETE will be whatever speed your going divided by your total route mileage left to go. Did I answer the right question? or were you asking something else??? Todd

OK OK.... I hate how slow it recalculates an autoroute I hate not being able to put in complete maps for 350mile trips and greater. I hate the inaccuracies in my city select map (st louis is kinda screwed and some of the local roads around my house. I hate that the points of interest are very incomplete. Other than those gripes...I wouldnt' have any other GPS for the money...cept for now maybe the 60CS

Mee too...I bought mine just as the rebate started and I got my $75 within 6 wks.

Remember, he said he's running windoze 95. Last computer I had win95 on was a 486. His computer may be predominatly ISA slots in which case every hardware item on there competes for IRQ's (just like my SCSI, MODEM, and eithernet card did. I had to eliminate one of my com ports...no matter what I tried. Just my experiences, your milage may vary.

You probably have a irq conflict..this happended to me when I had a network card, modem and two com ports enabled. Do you have isa cards in your system? PCI cards will not cause the conflict I'm talking about so if your all PCI then what I have to say wont be of interest. Todd snyder ...........let me know

I wonder if it uses an "average" speed over the past minute or so.... Just that there are times when I notifies me a mile away and I'm moving pretty slowly ... My V worked "flawlessly" on the interstate going through louisville for turn to turn navigation. I always knew my next exit, whether it was to the right or the left and how far and how long it was away....I'm telling you, for what it lacks in that area for rural directions it makes up for on the highway. Automatic recalculation has to be turned off if your far from your destination and you get off course...I was leaving louisville and had my route back home (130miles). Getting off the route it would be so long to recalculate that by the time I knew the new route you were too far down the road and it had to do it all over again...the only hope is for you to stop and wait for it to redo its thing..

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I may be wrong but I think it ignores your speed and just uses the appointed speed for the road you are on to determine when to alert you to the next turn. I have had some inconsistent results though. We need a garmin "firmware" guy on this list to answer these kind of questions..

I think for the money I would get a MeriPlatinum over the 76s. not that the 76s has some advantages but not enough to warrant the hundred or so extra dollars. But I got the V so..hey, Sue me.

There's 13 meg of basemap in there already leavign you with 19.

Yep, there a setting for NIMH that should give you a full reading when the batteies are fresh. I think you do loose some "run time" with my 1800 but the ability to recharge is worth it...