EL34

I have bought two GPS's form these people. A map76 and a Map76CS They were first rate e-merchants on both purchases and threw in a free t-shirt on both orders. GPS discount . com

I had a Map76S, sold it to friend and bought the Map76CS. The Map76CS has a slightly smaller screen but the colored maps are awesome. Tracks, waypoints, topo lines, borders, park interiors are all colored. I create my own custom maps for my Map76CS. I use Ozi-explorer, USA photo maps, Mapedit, cGPSmapper and several other pieces of software to do that. Here's a web address with some screen shots. GPS map making info page

rynd, I have only made custom maps for the area right behind my house which is Pisgah national forest. Basically the area that shows on the Trails illustrated biking maps of Pisgah. If I was to veture into another area, i would make them for that area but with over 500 miles of trails here at home, I don't seem to go anywhere else. I have instructions on how to roll your own maps with free USGS data. check out this page. Garmin map info

BR549, here's a page of info where you can see some of the custom maps I have downloaded into my Garmin map76CS. Like I said above, it's quite technical to do this sort of thing but it can be done and it is very cool to have custom maps loaded into your Garmin. click here for Garmin map page info Here's a sample image.

I only use GSAK to convert waypoints and tracks to Ozi-explorer format files. Is there a better program for that?

GPS accuracy varies constantly. My Garmin map76cs shows the accuracy level in feet and is always changing. I can usually use it to walk within 10 to 15 feet of an object if the co-ords are good. If you are out in the open with no mountains or trees and are communicating with satellites on the horizon 360 degrees, you will have a better accuracy than down in a valley surrounded by mountains using only overhead satellites. The GPS triangulates your position from several sat's and the wider on the horizon they are, the better accuracy.

They are all combined when I import them into OZI-Explorer. Basically I download as many waypoint pages as I need from this site and name them file1.loc file2.loc etc Import all these files into GSAK. You end up with one big .loc listing in GSAK. It's fast and easy to do this. Have GSAK convert them into Ozi waypoints and then it automatically imports all of the points into Ozi. So there's no need to combine anything.

Just found this too. Microsoft bought all those terra server sat images from the Russians years ago and put it all on line for free here. old terra server Now it looks like someone else has a terra server web site. here. Edit: This is a commercial map site and the images have been reduced in quality. The terraserver link above is a better choice. new terra server Doug Cox's USA photomaps software is able to download all those terra server small images and piece them together into large maps. USGS topo's and sat images are both available and able to be seamed together by USA photo maps. I have used it for years along with OZI-Explorer mapping software. USA photomaps can make big JPEG files and then those can be imported into many mapping software programs such as OZI. They are georeferenced properly by USA photo maps and so there is no nedd to georeference a map.

LOC files work just fine for me. I convert them to .wpt files anyway. I don't use gpx files.

Using Terra server, you can zoom in on a house or road and get the co-ords by hitting the info button. Sat maps or USGS topo's available. Terra server Using USA photomaps free software lets you use terra server and patch together large sections of satellite or USGS Topo images. USA photo maps You can see the exact co-ords of places very easily with both methods above.

When you do a search by zip code or co-ords on this web site, you will get pages of waypoints showing. At the bottom of each page there is a link that will bundle all the waypoints on a screen into a file. you can download the file and use GSAK to convert them to whatever format you need. I use OZi-Explorer .wpt files and GSAK does that just fine. It will then send them right to Ozi and they all show up on Ozi-'s mapping screen. You don't have to be a premium member to do this but you only get one page of points at a time which is about 20 or so. No big deal, just download as many pages as you need or want for free.

On my Map76CS, which should be about the same as your 60CS, you just use the four way rocker to move the cursor over the top of a waypoint on your screen. When you are right on top of it, the pointer will change/look different. If you hit enter, a screen of data about that waypoint opens up and one of your choices is to navigate to the waypoint.

You are NOT limited to using Garmin mapsource maps. There is a whole community dedicated to making their own maps usings USGS data for trails, roads, water, etc and custom map making software. It is involved and you have to be a techie sort, but I have 4 sets of custom mpas for the Pisgah National forest area near my house in NC. I have a Garmin map76CS loaded with custom maps and I have also done this with my old Map76. here's a forum where this sort of thing is discussed. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/map_authors/...ges/?threaded=1

I thought the mapsource topo's were rather lame compared to a paper USGS topo map. I have since made all my own custom maps using USGS data, GPS mapper software and Ozi Explorer map software. I have downloaded all the topo data, all the roads, trails, etc data and all the water/stream lake data for several counties around me and turned all the data into maps that I then download into my Garmin Map76S. I have added my personal tracks and waypoints to one of my custom maps. You can add all of the geocache waypoints from this site to a custom map if you like. I have four custom maps that show up in the mapsource data screen on the Garmin map76s. I can turn on any combo of the four custom maps and they will overlay each other. If I am using a trails illustrated custom map and I want to turn on the river/stream map or topo, I can. Problem is that the USGS topo data is exactly what you see on a real paper topo map and it is a bit too much data on the screen. That is here in the Pisgah National forest, NC. If you had less extreme topography, the topo lines would not be much of a problem. I only turn on the topo once in a while when I am bushwacking. Most of the time I turn on the Trails illustrated forest trail and the river/stream maps. Making custom maps for your Garmin is not all that easy. I only reccomend it to people who like getting into technical computer stuff. This is the program that can access a garmin GPS unit. GPS mapper site. http://gps.chrisb.org/gps_mapper.htm gps mapper how to guide. http://plrecgps.pp.org.pl/bin/view/GPS/GPSmapperGuide Ozi Explorer mapping software. http://www.oziexplorer.com/

hiking and mountain biking. I bought my maps76S for mapping out trails in the pisgah national forest that's right out my back door. 100's of miles of trails, not all of them on the map. Bushwacking cross country in the mountains here can get you into trouble. My GPS is loaded with custom maps of all the tracks, waypoints etc for this whole area. Very handy.

As was stated above, it depends on several things. Are you reading satellites that are all over head as if you were in a valley or are you reading several sats on the horizon as if on a large body of water? There are times when I can't even get a signal because I am inside of a cove and there are not enough overhead sats because the mountains are blocking them. Also, atmospheric moisture, leaf cover, etc affects readings. Here in the mountains of western NC, I am lucky to get 25ft as my most accurate readings.

There is another way to go on this mapping deal if you want to dive in a litlle deeper on mapping. I use OziExplorer (mapping program) and then lay tracks and waypoints over the top of several kinds of maps. Landsat images, USGS topos, Trails Illustrated maps, Terra server images, custom maps, etc. If your map is properly geo-referenced and the cache coords. are close, the waypoints all show up right on the button. You can check it yourself by going to a major intersection of two roads, take a reading, hope the GPS reading is close, download the waypoints from your GPS and then display them on top of a Landsatellite image or a terra server image. You can see the roads clearly and zoom in to see if the waypoint is where it is supposed to be. The USGS STDS data is right on the money and you can also use that free data to see if your map is georeference correctly with streams, roads and topo data. I find that the GPS is many times off by 25 feet or more from actual USGS data. I live in the mountains of NC and it is hard to get satellites that are out on the horizon. Mostly overhead sats. and so the GPS can't get as good of a 3D fix as I would like. OziExplorer web site

I use a Garmin map76S but they may be more money than what you want to spend. The reason I like Garmin stuff is because there is a custom piece of software out there that lets you download your own custom home made maps into Garmins. I am not talking about mapsource stuff. Mapsource doesn't have the goods in my oppinion. I create all my own custom maps using OziExplorer software. The maps are created from tracks, waypoints, USGS data, topo maps, etc and then downloaded using GPSmap. I think it is alot nicer to go bushwacking in the woods if you have all the trails, logging roads, streams and stuff that may not be on any map loaded into the GPS before you set out on foot. I am able to download all the geocaching.com waypoints and convert them to .WPT OziExplorer waypoints. These can then be loaded as part of my custom map. There is no manual entering of any data. Of course you can download the waypoints into the Garmin using OziExplorer if you want. All the goecaching waypoints can be laid on top of any number of map types in OziExploer. Sattellite images, USGA topo's, Terra server images, MrSid landsat images. It's very cool. I am not sure what Garmin models are able to download custom maps, but it is a very nice feature to have. Having my custom maps as a background map on my GPS has saved my butt more than once when bushwacking.