ERDAD9092

You can only LOAD Garmin Mapsource maps into your Garmin GPS (although there is a way to create your own custom topo maps and load those into your unit). If you're talking about which mapping software to use on a PC, then you can use pretty much any mapping software...Mapsource, National Geographic Topo, MapTech, ExpertGPS, etc. A non-GPS specific mapping program will enable you to transfer waypoints, tracks and routes to and from almost any GPS. In other words, I don't think you can transfer data to a Magellan GPS from Mapsource, but you could transfer data from any GPS to NG Topo or Maptech Terrain Navigator and back to any GPS, whether it's a Garmin or Magellan.

One more thing when considering a GPS is the display... I've noticed that as I've grown more experienced in SAR, my eyes aren't quite as capable of seeing the tiny font in the eTrex Vista But the display on the 60 Csx is a lot easier to read which was another good reason for upgrading! As for maps, there are a couple of people in my unit working on making custom topo maps for the Garmin units which can use them...so I have custom 1:24,000 topos loaded into my 60 Csx for my county and neighboring counties where we may get called out for a mutual aid response. There are some great threads in this forum about making your own custom maps that can be loaded into the Garmin mapping units. A bit daunting at first, but even I have been able to make my own and load them...

I concur with rhitchco. I'm with a California SAR team and our members purchase their own GPS units. I recently upgraded from an eTrex Vista to a 60 Csx and the difference in the ability to acquire and lock on to a signal is very noticeable. My SAR team also uses geocaching as a way to get members familiar with how to use their GPS. They need to know how to input coordinates in both lat/long and UTM, as well as what effect using the wrong datum will have on locating their search area. On a muddy trail at 3:00 in the morning, in the rain and poison oak is not the time to try to remember how to do those things! As we are volunteers who fall under the Sheriff's Office, Emergency Services/Homeland Security division, we use regular department radios using licensed public safety frequencies. We tried the early Garmin Rhino 110 and Rhino 120 for a "reality based" show called "Tactical to Practical" which was shot for The History Channel. They did a segment on GPS and how GPS moved from military use only to non-military applications. The Rhinos worked as well as any other GPS unit available at the time, however, the radios were still only consumer quality...we couldn't get through to our search base even though it was less than a mile away. Paul