Orion84

I use the free GeoSetter software to combine the tracks from my Garmin Vista HCx and the pictures from my Nikon D40. Works like a charm

That's what I meant of course. Sorry if that wasn't immediately clear

To open multiple tracks, you will have to copy/paste them. Open a track file, copy the track(s), open the next file, paste the tracks from the previous file, repeat for all files... To jump to the correct part of the map, you can simply right-click on a track and click on "Show this track on the map" or something similar.

Can G7toWin save it in some other fileformat, then reopen that and save it as gpx again, to get rid of any possible corruption of the original gpx file?

Garmin's Topo Great Britain v2 is also OS based, so maybe you don't even need such a unit capable of displaying raster maps. If that topo product of Garmin is good enough for you, you could go with a Legend HCx, Vista HCx or a 60CSx i'd guess?

Isn't that just a matter of strapping it to your pack in a different way? I have a Vista HCx as well, and manage perfectly well to strap it onto my backpack in the ideal position (unit facing the sky). Maybe your pack does not enable you to mount your GPS in such a way, but that does not mean that strapping a Vista to your pack means per definition that it is held vertically. As the picture in my post in another topic here illustrates: http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php...d=3786623 It definitely may be something to take into account for mlandman, but if his backpack allows him to strap a GPSr to it, facing the sky, then it's no problem

I usually strap mine (a Garmin Etrex Vista HCx) to a shoulder strap of my backpack using the standard pouch from Garmin. Not on the front, but on top of my shoulder, such that it faces the sky. Which is best for these models as StarBrand mentioned already. First I tie the wrist strap of the GPS to one of the plastic rings that is integrated with the shoulder strap, as a backup. And then I clip the belt clip of the pouch onto the shoulder strap. Since a picture says more than a thousand words: This way the GPS has good reception - the only better place is on top of my head I guess - and I can still easily take it in my hand if I want to take a look at the screen. Putting it in the top pouch of your pack is also a good option, reception wise, but that way you probably need to take off your pack every time you want to consult your GPS. Putting it inside your pack also might make it harder to keep it in the ideal position.

Isn't it easier to just drag parts of the path created by GE's route planner to make it fit you're wishes, in stead of drawing the path entirely by yourself? I'm mixing Google Maps features with Google Earth features, sorry

Isn't that just caused by the unit switching to the basemap as soon as you zoom out to a certain level? But as mentioned: it all depends on the detail setting. When on 'Normal', the unit only displays the basemap until you zoom in to 2km. From 2km it displays the topo map, but with reduced detail. From 300m or closer it shows all the streets. If you zoom in further, it will start showing more and more buildings and POI's. If you set it to 'Most', it will display all data until you zoom out to 12km (where it switches to the basemap). Which indeed causes some severe cluttering. 'More' is somewhere in between, keeping all roads displayed up to the 2km level. City Navigator does basically the same thing, although it has a step in between the level where it is showing just highways, and the level where it shows all roads. But basically it is just a matter of setting the unit to 'Normal' detail, to prevent minor details from showing up, until you have zoomed in enough to prevent cluttering.

Ah, so I was correct about the doppler thing. Must have read that somewhere then About the fact that the actual error will quite likely be not too large: Good point! And on the slopes that are steep enough (and long enough) to cause a serious error, I probably won't be going flat out anyway Well, thanks for all the replies. I learned a thing or two again. If I won't forget (snowboard trip is somewhere in februari), I'll report back here with my experiences after I return from Austria

I rather just ask the experienced experts here You've got a good point there. Is it certain that a GPSr determines speed from current and last location and the time interval, or does it calculate it directly using doppler effect somehow? (Just a wild idea, don't know how I came up with it, it's probably just done simply by taking two positions and a time interval, but since I am always told that one can not ask stupid questions...) Don't exactly know what you mean by that? GPS calculates X-Y-Z first, doesn't it? If so, it could calculate 3D speed from that-- and any elevation error would be irrelevant. Isn't Z the same as the elevation?

Since I will be taking my Vista HCx along on my snowboard trip later this winter, I was wondering... The speed a GPSr records/logs/displays, is it the 3D speed, taking changes in elevation into account, or is it simply horizontal speed? While descending a steep slope, this could be quite different...

That would not make much of a difference in the amount of interference a GPSr could cause would it? It only disables the GPS signal receiver, which is not the most active component of the GPSr I'd guess. The screen, CPU (if you can speak of such a thing in a GPSr), memory controller etc. are still active. With an active device like a phone or other kind of tranceiver, it would make sense to place an antenna on the outside of the plane, with a shielded cable to your seat to which you connect your tranceiver, but that's not the case here

You could try maps based on the Open Street Map project. For instance (if you use a garmin GPSr) the ones from: http://emexes.powweb.com/osm/download.html

What exactly do you mean by 'far superior'? OK, the 60CSx's screen is a bit taller (part of which is taken up by the permanent battery/gpsfix/clock indicator bar), but the resolution is slightly lower than that of the HCx (111dpi vs 123dpi). I was at my uncle's place today and was able to compare my Vista HCx to his recently bought 60CSx and I can't say I was overly impressed by the screen of the 60CSx, it appeared to me to be less crisp (like when you are not using the native resolution on the TFT of your PC) and the contrast of my HCx appeared to better as well (with backlight on). Button layout might be an advantage indeed though. I'm quite used to handling my HCx by now, so it is hard to tell, but I can imagine the 60CSx is easier. I do agree with someone who posted here that the rocker button of the HCx is a bit annoying at times, especially when you are in a less stable position, for instance while cycling with the device mounted on the handlebar. Personaly I chose the Vista HCx over the 60CSx, mostly because the functionality is almost exactly the same and the HCx is a lot cheaper. I also like the compactness of the HCx

Since you probably don't want to end up booting your GPSr and finding your batteries to have drained over time, I would recommend some Low Self Discharge NiMH batteries For instance Sanyo Eneloop, GP Recyko, or any of the other options, depending on what is available near you (or online, if that's an option for you). I guess you should be able to find some reviews online on which brands to choose. Eneloops are definitely a good choice, the Recyko's are pretty much as good as the Eneloops. I use some GP Recyko cells in my Vista HCx myself Only downside of these kind of LSD NiMH batteries is that they are currently available up to 2100mAh or something like that, which is slightly less capacity than what you see for regular NiMH batteries, that go up to (or even beyond) 2700mAh.

You mean you need to get the full version, because it includes the non-NT edition? Since for as far as I know, the update includes everything you need, at least I did not run into any weird problems installing that. Works like a charm with my Vista HCx. Although..., I did already have some version of CNE2008 installed, so maybe my experience may not be entirely representative. Anyway, I can be sure about the other question: version 9 is not the same as 2009, 2009 is version 11

You are looking for a (cheap) map product that covers Germany and which you can install on your 60CSX? You could try one from http://emexes.powweb.com/osm/download.html, not perfect, but it won't get any cheaper and when you use http://emexes.powweb.com/osm/OSM-Germany-2008-10-03.exe it is quit easy to install it too, if you use Windows. Install mapsource from the CD that came with your 60CSX, if you had not already done so, and then just run the installer for the German map. How to use mapsource to send maps to your GPS device shouldn't be too hard if you put some effort into it. I don't know of any other easy to install cheap (and legal) map products covering Germany (you could try to find other OSM based products). At least I guess with not wanting to spending a fortune, you mean you don't want to buy Garmin Topo Germany or Garmin City Navigator or something similar?

Next to a selection of City Navigator and topographical maps from Garmin, covering the Netherlands and some of the countries around it, I have also loaded some OSM maps found on http://emexes.powweb.com/osm/ in my Vista HCx. (The site provides nice MapSource installers) These OSM based maps are routable, but most of the time I just use city nav. for routing and the topo maps while geocaching in forests etc. I mostly loaded the OSM maps just to see whether such a free alternative really is a proper alternative to Garmins products. I must say they are quite up to date around here, pretty comparable to City Navigator 2008, CN 2009 definitely is much more up to date though. The CN maps are more complete and detailed as well, Garmin's Topo maps are even more detailed of course, but those are not routable. So, I think the OSM maps, or at least the maps from http://emexes.powweb.com/osm/ have quite a long way to go before they are on the same level as Garmin's (or should we say Navteq's) products. However, if it comes to value for money, they might be quite an interesting option for those of us who can't afford the rather pricey official products.

Well, I do not know about the other comments as my Garmin is working wonders. But the new mapsource is a creep indeed. It is slower, but a bit more beautiful visually. But it will not use my OpenStreetMap of the Netherlands, not even after a restore of the OSM map.. So I installed the old version again, you need to do that twice to make it work (no idea why). It is always worthwile to keep the old download if a new version is giving issues. No need to be a computer geek to do this though. I don't know which OSM maps you use, but the ones I found here work fine in my mapsource 6.14.1: http://emexes.powweb.com/osm/download.html Except for one minor issue, being an incorrect registry entry, which I guess Garmin can not be blamed for, I suspect it is an error in the OSM installer. I had to change the name of a 'folder' in the OSM regkeys to 1 in stead of 8. After that it worked just fine A screenshot of what I mean: This section can be found in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE -> SOFTWARE When I installed OSM, this subfolder of the OSM folder was called 8, when changed to 1 (as is the case with all other garmin regkey folders) the OSM maps worked fine. Maybe this will work for you as well

Maybe you could try to use another application for building the map? OziExplorer for instance does draw tracks as thin (colored) lines. The only problem will then be that it might be a bit tricky to load the garmin maps in any other software then MapSource. But maybe you can find some software that supports garmin maps and the desired track display style

You mean that you found the coordinates of the next part of a multicache and typed these in as a new waypoint in your GPS device, but it then seems that the resulting waypoint can not be correct, because it is much too far away? I guess you should check that the coordinates you found and the coordinates you type in are in the same format (and datum, but that will probably be ok, WGS84). Maybe the coordinates are given in degrees and minutes and you are typing in decimal degrees or something like that? So, check the format of the coordinates used in the multicache (usually degrees and minutes I guess?) and check the format your GPS device is set to. In my Garmin Vista HCx this is found in the Units Setup (position format).

My Vista HCx has an option for this, don't know which exact unit you have, but on the HCx you can use the "New Location" option in the menu screen at the satellite page to re-init the satellite information and such. So you might want to check that out I did have to select "Use with gps off" first by the way, before that the "New Location" item was grayed out. After then selecting "New Location" the gps turned on automatically again and soon satellites started to appear.

Or just use the tracks stored in the .gpx files on the microSD card. Those tracks contain all info. Basically the .gpx files contain a history of all active logs, which are split automatically when you clear the 'real' active log, or turn on the device/gps receiver/tracking To do this you must first enable "Log track data to card" from the Track -> Setup -> Data Card Setup screen though.