b_rad2cool

Dont know what happened. Followed the linked instructions. When I open mapsource and then Topo west, I do not get the insert CD US Topo west now, nor will it pull up a topo map. Something went wrong.

Neo Geo, thanks for the post, can't wait to get home and try that.

I was actually wondering the same thing. After getting TOPO myself, I was very disappointed with how little information as far as trails and campsites were on it. You can go out and find a 40 year old TOPO map and get better information.

My Gilsson antenna arrived last week and it really dose make a difference. I wish I would have purchased the 9 foot cable instead of the 3 ft. I found that if I stick it inside of the sliding door between my moon-roof and interior of the car my reception is better than on the suction cup mount attached to the windshield. I am using this antenna on a 76CS which brings up another question, Do you have to calibrate the electronic compass with the Gilsson antenna attached to the GPS to get the correct compass reading?

We are leaving on a family vacation soon. I would like to upload several waypoints of places we are going to visit along with some geocaching waypoints in two separate states. When I upload everything to the 76CS, how do I keep it all organized? Is there a trick? I am using City Select, TOPO West, and Easy GPS as far as software.

Email the airline customer service and ask if there are any restrictions. Most likely they will come back with they could not find any. Just in case you get a smart-a** that says no, just send another email and the next person will say yes. Carry that email with you. I do this when I carry my R/C sailplane transmitters. I have had to pull out the email more than once in all my travels to get through airport security. I also include the model of the transmitter in the subject line of the email. I have flown all over the US and Europe doing this since 9/11.

We had a surveyor come out and he was able to lay our project out in a few minutes. I asked him about his equipment and he said that everything was leased because it was so expensive and became obsolete so fast. He also said that the only thing he had to purchase was the software and the updates cost a couple thousand a year. I really do not know if anything he said was the truth or just BS.

Is your friend a terrorist? If not, he should contact a survey equipment company and maybe he can rent what he is looking for as his $1000 is going to fall into a short-term rental price range for something that accurate. You may have to have a surveyors licence.

Thank's for the link to the Garmin Manuals. The problem that I have with Garmin, is Garmin assumes too much of the users experience. Some of the definitions are vague at best. Many of the examples if any are poor. I printed out the entire manual for City Select and could not find answers to my questions. This forum seems to fill that void. Thanks for your post and my reply should not be construed as a criticism directed towards you.

I'm not sure if I understand. Say I have uploaded the state of New Mexico and later I add the entire state of California, will that replace New Mexico?

I need to erase all the city select and topo maps along with all geocaching waypoints. In other words, recover all my memory so I can load the new maps and geocaching stuff we will need during our vacation. I thought there was an easy intuitive way to do this but could not figure it out. I left my owners manual in a hotel room and now my home computer is in the shop. Not allowed to copy personal stuff from work. Thanks

I sort of think just a screen protector is all you need.

I went the in a different direction. I bought the Garmin V for $199 and that included the 12V travel cord along with the City select. I can use both accessories with my 76CS. It also gave me an extra GPS to keep the kids away from mine. I'm not much on putting a laptop on my dash. Sort of gets in my way and makes me feel guilty because I'm having fun and not working. You will also notice the “strange look” people give you when your walking around in the woods with a laptop.

Crazy Diamond, you really crack me up. Maybe you and Honest Pleasure could get together and proof read each other’s post for content.

I guess Garmin really screwed up when they didn’t get you to do the Beta testing before they released the 60c, 60cs, 76c, 76cs. I think that they could take care of this problem within the firmware if enough people were to rant and rave about it. Maybe it would be a patch but who cares as long as it works? I’m amazed how many of the products we have tested (where I work) and then later sat around and laughed about what a piece of crap it was and then in a few weeks, that piece of crap is sent back to us working with just a little tweaking of the software. You have made sound valid points but for 90% of the people using this forum, they are not legitimate reasons for not buying any of the mentioned units. I appreciate knowing what the limitations of my GPS are by posts like yours because they generate good suggestions of getting around those limiting factors. Plus it keeps me entertained at work. Thanks again! I

With all your posts..., what you are really saying is that you would really LOVE to own a Garmin 60c, 60cs, 76c, 76cs if they would just take care of the Waypoint thing? If you will draft up a formal written request to send to Garmin addressing this problem and asking Garmin to correct it along with anything else you can think of, I for one will gladly sign it.

I am still thrilled with my 76cs and have found the programming and ease of use very intuitive. I think that there could have been a better owners manual as I think Garmin takes a lot for granted and assumes that everyone knows all about GPS's. I guess that maybe in time I may find all the shortcomings but no regrets at this time.

I read something on one of the RC groups that recent tests of the Lithium cells have shown that they really do not have anything on the new generation NiMH cells as far as capacity. I am looking for the string so I can post the link (stand-by). And yes, “they are still superior in extreme cold and lighter in weight”.

I thought that it was just me and I couldn't figure the waypoint thing out. Thanks for the post.

I think that a AA NiMh rechargeable will outlast any alkaline battery if properly conditioned. I got 34 hours with my 76cs on SANYO brand 2500mAh AA Ni-MH. $3.00ea + You cannot take a Ni-MH out of the package charge them up and expect them to reach more than 75-80% of capacity. It takes several charges and discharges to condition them. As far as Lithium’s go, some electronic devices have problems with them as far as showing how much battery life is remaining. Has anyone checked with Garmin in regards to using them in the units? In some of the HAM stuff, the manufactures would not honor the warranty if Lith-Ion were being used or found in the unit when sent in for warranty repairs.

I guess that you didn't buy the optional pressurized cabin Pito Tube accessory from Garmin. Oh... I forgot the real reason for this post. I just got off the phone with a geocacher that I met this weekend and he said that we did very well finding 6 cashes the first time out (3 hours 45 min). It's because of the electronic compass I am sure.

We are new to geocaching and went out for the first time sunday. I bought two gps at the same time. 1 with an electronic compass and 1 without. OK... there is a learning curve but we didn't find any caches with the gps without the built in compass and did not know that I needed to go out and buy a magnetic compass. So if you don't already own one factor in another $10.00 for the compass and now your $40.00 apart.

I sure wish I had known that about West Marine. Funny thing is I went there to pickup some fabric spray and started looking at the 76cs. I mentioned to the guy that I was interested in one and guessed that I would have to buy it on line because of such a big price difference and he said that they just cant compete with the guys selling out of their garage. I said that several had store fronts and he never said anything about that policy or I would have bought one then on the spot.

I have only delt with gpsdiscount.com and was very pleased. Shipped same day for free and I had it held for pickup at FedEx. Picked it up at 7:30 the next morning. I only order from Cabelas and Bass Pro Shops when something is on sale or its the only place I can find it. Why pay retail when you don't have to? I think they only stock Garmin.

Thanks for all the advice. Went back to REI and fondled both the 60 and 76. At first the 60 had the best feel and looked pretty cool too. I found that I had to use two hands to make adjustments to the functions. On the 76 I could hold it in one hand and make the adjustments with the same hand. So I ordered the 76CS and Garmin V. I met a guy on the trail the first time the kids and I went to try geocaching and he had the 60. He was making all the adjustments while holding the unit with one hand so it can be done after you get used to it. I was real careful about the maps I loaded at first not to use up memory too fast. I ended up adding TOPO and everything else I left off. I still had not used as much memory as the 60cs has. I am sure that the 60cs would have worked for our application. -b_rad-