Rubberhead

I'm a little bit of a salty dog too. I boat out of Charleston Harbor and Winyah Bay in South Carolina. Lowrance has good, long reputation with mariners but many boaters I know are starting to turn to Garmin. It’s a noticeable trend. I’m all Garmin – Chart Plotter, Fish Finder and have a backup GPSmap 60CS with a Ram Mount and hardwired 12VDC plug on my Key West.

Ditto

Most Garmin customers have similar stories. I have a couple myself.

The "D" stands for differential. It means you have WAAS turned on and are receiving differential corrections.

That was my first thought too.

Send it back. The GPSmap 60C should get much better receiption than the Legend. My 60CS is way "stronger" than all the eTrex units I've owned.

The GPSmap 60CS has some important advantages. 1) Serial port that can be used to interface with NMEA devices 2) External antenna port 3) Direct 12VDC input 4) Double the memory

There is no better time than the present to be assimilated into the mindless, but otherwise happy, Garmin GPSmap 60C collective.

Straight from the Garmin website: http://www.garmin.com/cartography/mapSource/citynavnt.jsp Based on what I read, it looks like they are going with compression techniques to trim down CN so that it fits in the same or smaller memory than CS. That being said, I hope they are planning to update the software in existing AR units and not use the lack of updated CS maps as a way to force people to the newer units.

I think someone already said it, but you can't unlock updates (either free or the purchased type) to units other than the units unlocked for the original software.

I've got FHS 5.0 East. Here are the two entries. I hope this helps. [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Garmin\MapSource\Families\US Recreational Lakes with Fishing Hot Spots® East v5] "DataInstallDir"="C:\\Program Files\\MapSource\\" "SourceDir"="D:\\" "ID"=hex:4f,00 "MDR"="C:\\Program Files\\MapSource\\FHSV5_East_mdr.img" "IDX"="C:\\Program Files\\MapSource\\FHSV5_East.mdx" [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Garmin\MapSource\Families\US Recreational Lakes with Fishing Hot Spots® East v5\1] "Notice"="C:\\Program Files\\MapSource\\FHSV5_East\\license.txt" "Bmap"="C:\\Program Files\\MapSource\\FHSV5_East.img" "Tdb"="C:\\Program Files\\MapSource\\FHSV5_East.tdb" "Loc"="C:\\Program Files\\MapSource\\FHSV5_East"

Based on what you've said, I'd say you have a better chance of damaging your adapter than the Explorist. Chances are the voltage would drop to the point your Explorist is drawing only 700 mA. The lower voltage might or might not be enough to power your GPS. Voltages lower than nominal don't usually hurt electronics. Lower voltages will, however, ruin AC powered motors and relays.

Count me as a Garmin GPSmap 60CS supporter. I adore my 60CS even after a year and a half.

Save the little bit of extra money and go for a unit with color and a USB port.

That's about the right price but make sure that it comes with the serial cable.

Hunting is a very broad catagory. I'm mainly a bird hunter who hunts in South Carolina's lowcountry. I'm also a Garmin guy so I can only speak to Garmin units. Here's the list of what I consider important features for a hunter and the reasonings: 1) Color unit: better battery life and much better screen contrast 2) USB interface, about 25 times quicker download than a serial interface 3) Sensors (Altimeter and compass): Altimeter is a good weather barometer when you are sitting still - the compass allows you to draw a bearing even if sitting motionless in a tree stand. 4) Autorouting: Most hunter travel at least some in pursuit of their passion. Autorouting makes it easy and safe. 5) Small: We already carry a lot of gear so keep size to a minimum. My suggestion from the Garmin line would be an eTrex Vista C if 24 MB of memory is enough for you travel habits.

I think all long-time Garmin customers have a similar story. I personally believe that they have the best products and the best customer service.

You shouldn't run the risk of buying a used Mapsource title for any maps that require unlocking since, at best, you are only going to get one unlock code. This includes City Select, City Navigator, Bluecharts and Fishing Hotspots V4.0 and earlier. Metroguide, Topo and Recreational Lakes V5.0 don't require unlocking so the biggest risk in buying is that you won't get the original disks, only copies.

What ever you get make sure that it has a USB interface rather than a serial.

You will need to get a detail mapping program such as Mapsource City Select if you want to autoroute to such a fine level.

Autorouting (a biggie) Tidal predictions USB instead of serial (24 MB of maps load in 3 minutes instead of 50) Audible alarms This was the few I could think of.

http://www.garmin.com/products/gpsmap376c/ and http://www.garmin.com/products/etrexVistac/ All the bases will be covered.

It takes nearly an hour to load 24MB of maps into a Vista and only about 2 minutes to load 24MB of map into a Legend C. That lone should be a decision point.

If you already have any Mapsource product you should download what you've been calling the unofficial method. This addes a "162/186" heading in the product pulldown in Mapsource and allows you to load tidal stations along with your other Mapsource products. If you don't have any Mapsource products you should download and install the D00590XA-Marine POI Database software. Several Mapsource products have tidal stations built-in including Points of Interest, Metroguide, and Blue-Charts which comes with a product layer called "Tide and Marine Services". I hope this helps - Rubberhead.

I'm a big time hunter. If it were me, I'd get an eTrex Vista C. The reason for the C is that the Compass will let you get a bearing to a downed deer or another hunting location from a treestand when you can't move. A GPS without a compass can not do that. The Barometer does a fairly good job of forecasting short term weather changes. The eTrex units fit easily in a shirt pocket. You won't know it's there unless you need it. The color units have USB ports. It is getting almost impossible to find a computer now days with a serial port. Plus, USB ports are about 30 times quicker than serial ports. As far as software goes: If you hunt the same places a lot, I'd suggest getting Topo. If you like to travel to hunt new places, I'd suggest City Select. If you fish too, Fishing Hotspots would make a lot of sense. I kept my Vista after I upgraded to the 60CS simply for the shirt-pocket fit when I'm hunting.