dhbaird

Hi Alpha, My usage of the GPS I purchase is going to be multi-facited so what I am really trying to do is to discern if an all-in-one unit will do the trick. In early October I traveled to a city I have never flown into before. I drove for a day to an area that I did not know. I then used an off road vehicle to get to some remote trail heads. I hiked into three remote canyons, one with multiple water crossings that could have been very hairy in higher water. A GPS with auto-routing would have been extremely helpful in the driving and off-road parts of that journey. It also turned out that a GPS would also have been very helpful with two of the canyon hikes. I had been unable to get a map for the first day of canyoning... I got 75% of that intended hike in because I lost the trail and had to back track. I did get one for the next two. Even with the map and my trusty compass I failed to locate a trail that day. The trail had been obliterated by landslides earlier in the year and after looking for close to an hour for a way to get around and continue on, I finally had to turn around, again short of my destination. I wished I had a GPS that day to just help me figure out where I really was in relation to that map so I could push on. I also do canoe treking in the lakes and rivers of Maine and Canada. I also do very limited bare-boat sailing with friends on the ocean. Most of the time they bring a marine GPS with Blue Water Charts installed, but I can not count on that all the time. Does that help you to better understand what I want to do with this unit? Caching will be a fun addition to my recreation, but the major purpose will be to get me there and back again in a multiple of ways. I am also tired of having to find a local store with the correct maps before a trek. I was hoping that with a good investment in the right mapping software that I could now be equipped to jump on a plane at the spur of a moment and have enough topo data at my finger tips to get there and back again safely and with the pictures my editor is asking me to bring back.

Just curious, how long does it take to re-calibrate?

Can you use Cachemate and do paperless on a Palm without a SD or do you need the SD to store the files? I have cachemate here... I have EasyGPS I have a Palm M125 I do not have a SD with it. What else do I need to make this work? Where is the best tutorial on the web for doing this located?

I guess that is part of my question... Are the "S" functions worth sacrificing 10 hours of battery life? David

Froogle shows City Select from about $105. I don't recognize any of the vendors. 4x4 books (parent of GPSNow?) has if for $119. You can also get it bundled with the GPS 18 dongle starting at $102, but I'm not sure if that comes with more than one unlock code. Anyone here buy the GPS18 North America Delux package? GPSONSALE.COM seems to have the best price on the 76cs itself right now. I think they apply the available rebate before you purchase. But the software seemed priced a bit higher. Any place known to offer package deals of GPS and software at a great combined price?

Can anybody suggest the best place for software puchases for a Garmon 76? David

Not to sound stupid or anything as I am totally new to this but what about trying something like this. If you have a recorded track in NG Topo, how about after the fact going into Topo and adding a few waypoints on top of the Track. Then create a route that over lays the track. By exporting the waypoints and route to a gpix file and then uploading them to your GPS. I used to own a GPS with my old Palm. I took a few hikes in the Colorado Rockies with it and I have several tracks saved. I saved the tracks to my harddrive here and printed out the map with the track overlaid on it. Later I then went back into the map software and created a route file off the start point and a few way points. I then did a distance and elevation traveled report so I could write that trek up for a magazine article I was writing. An acquantance emailed me and asked me to send the route file to a friend for him to use. He did not have a GPS but he was able to import the route file into his Topo program and print out a map with the distance and elevation report and had a copy of my article to assist in finding the trail head. He had an enjoyable day. I would think you would be able to create a route with way points from your track and get it back into your unit that way. David

For folks who have used both color and grey scale GPS's, did you get any real benefit for moving to color? Any drawbacks? Power consumption greater or the same? David

Just how good are the compass and altimeter features that Garmin includes on the "S" models? I know that the S stands for "compass, altimeter, glide ratio and vertical speed to destination calculators" but I really want to know if they add much more functionalisty than the units without them. Do they maintain calibration? Do they lose position and have to be reset during a hike or trip? If you do a reset, what does that do to the data you might have collected so far on a trek? David

Hi Redwoods and others... Do any of the various Topo Map Programs include a good sampling of hiking trails in their data bases? Do the hiking clubs that put out trail guide books (Like the Appalachian Mountain Club or the Sierra Club) have any computer trail assistance files that folks can down load to help create tracks for uploading to a GPS? One of the things that bugged me last trek was the fact that none of the trails I was using in Arizona were on any of the computer based maps I looked at. It took a stop at a mountain store in Sedona to find some actual trail maps that had some of the trails I ended up trying. I like to do my trek planning a bit more in advance and can not often wait till I am on site to find a store that may or may not have the trail maps I am looking for. David

I am still trying to make my choice about GPS platform and since I have not seen any of the mapping softwares in action on any of the GPS units I have a bit of a learning curve ahead of me. It seems that the biggest factor will be how people like the underlying maps and software used in the units and on their coputer planning trips. So what is your favorite? Which one is easier to use? What things drive you crazy? What would you avoid? I am in the market for a GPS system that will do street, off-road, hiking (especialy wet canyoning) and limited marine. Sometimes all these occur on the same trip. Switching from auto-routing to uploaded pre-planned treks and back again. So what mapping softwre makes it easy and not a pain in the tush? Does any unit, other than a PDA based take multiple software sources or are you always confined to a propriatory format on the maps? If I opt for a unit that takes SF memory cards, which unit can take the most beating and exposure to water and which do you have to pamper. How rugged are the PDA versions? David

So what GPS do you use with the IIIx? David

Rich FYI I emailed a contact I have at Delorme and asked for specs on the new unit and release date, to see if I could afford to wait for their unit. The answer was: "Still in the development phase, final feature set not yet established, no release date yet available." Oh well... back to the drawing boards on replacing all my software. David

I have the M130 and before that a IIIx. What would you like to know? David

Hi Sputnik Thanks for the update, certainly that is all the storage I would need for one of my hiking trips as I rarely cover more than one state in one trip. Now another question for you and others. How do you like City select? Does the 60cs give an audible warning when you have a turn coming up? How does it compare to a product like Delorme Street Atlas? I've used the Delorme product since version 1.0 and have come to rely upon good street data. David

Not yet, but DeLorme says they have one coming. I got this off the Delorme web site: So for us new to the terminology. What are they saying when they use the terms, routes, draw layers, tracks and way points? Is a draw layer a map with the topo information? When I uploaded a Route to my PDA the map was uploaded with it. I certainly do not intend to interface this GPS with the PDA with cables or blue tooth to just be able to use the existing software, would totally defeat the purpose of what I am trying to accomplish, especially in the canyoneering that I intend to do with it. I was just trying to not have to throw away my $ that I already invested in topo maps and downloads and have to start all over again. I also have literally 100's of saved routes for the auto with all the via's and avoids set in my Delorme Street atlas files. If I do not have to re-do that work it would be great. David

HI There, Thanks for the response. Bringing the laptop is one thing I am trying to avoid when I travel so if the difference between the 60cs and the 76c6 of about $50.00 then I'd rather pay that then shlep the laptop around for a trip. I bring it when we do bareboating. That won't be aproblem to store it away and bring it out to reload maps and charts, but if I take a canyon trek like I did at the beginning of the month I get on the plane with a carry on and my day pack. No room for a laptop for a trip like that. I went from Phoenix to Sedona, then had 3 canyon hikes planned in the Sedona area. Drove up to Grand Canyon and scouted a hiking trip into the GC for next trek and then spent a day scouting out 6 ruin sites for some photography assignments for a magazine article I am writing on hiking in AZ. The canyons were within 30-40 air miles of each other except the leg when we drove up to the GC. The ruins sites all were about the same, 20-30 air miles apart on some relatively obscure trails and forest roads. From what you are saying it sounds like the only way I could accomplish the above with the 60CS was to bring the lap-top and change the downloads. Is there a GPS unit comparable to the 60CS that is as rugged and as waterproof that takes additional RAM or SD cards? David

Are there any GPS's that use the DeLorme maps like my PDA did? David

I am getting ready to purchase my GPS and just have one more question. Five years ago I purchased a GPS unit that plugged into my Palm PDA. I found that with Solus software I could download my Delorme Topo maps into the PDA and use it successfully in my wilderness treking. The Palm PDA died and could not be fixed, so the GPS was no longer useful either. But I still have all the software. StreetAtlas, Topo USA, Street Finder... Can I use any of my existing Software (Topo maps and Street Atlas) from DeLorme with a Garmin GPS unit? Do I need any special software to make it work (like Solus?) Just trying to figure out what software to get with my new GPS. David

I know nothing about the Garmon connector cable, but if it follows the Serial protocol, you might have to have the GPS powered up and running while you cold reboot your computer in order for it to initialize the serial port correctly and begin talking with it. Try powering off the computer system completely. Power up the Gps. Then power back on the computer and see if the operating system sees the port. If it does not see the port, then you may have to go even deeper into your computer set-up to configure the port to the correct settings. (ie 8,n,1,p, xon-xoff or hardware flow control etc...) I once found something fluky in the usb drivers that were written by Palm that might apply here as well. The computer in question had a usb palm cradle for one user and then my serial based cradle for my palm. The computer would not recognize the serial cradle when the usb cradle was plugged in and visa versa. It was wierd, but that situation might apply with you as well. David

Opps, hit report instead of reply <grin> Sorry moderator! Let's try again. How much bigger is the 76 from the 60cs? Is one any more water resistent than the other? Do most people operate them with an external antenna when they are on a boat or auto? How about the mounting brackets, any one better than another? I also do off-raoding with a 4x4. How much memory does one need in a unit to load in the road mapping software as well as some topo of an area so I can do point to point routing? Is the battery life any better on one unit vs the other? What are the basic software packages for both hiking and driving that people most highly recommend? Best source for charts for the Caribbean? Our next cruise is leaving from St. Martin and sailing to Nevis and then back around St. Martin, Anguilla and maybe St. Barths. It will be some of our first blue water sailing out of the sight of the BVI's which puts us in unfamiliar waters. Any good geocaches in the Caribbean? Will it be easy to integrate some cache way points with the chart files? I know lots of questions and they might be answered in the faq's but I've got a limited amount of time to get this thing ordered, delivered and set-up in time for our next trip (6 weeks). When I get back I'll be pestering the other forums on GEO Caching as it sounds like something I'd love to do. David

I am totally new to this GPS technology and am seeking to purchase my first unit. I am an avid hiker, often treking in mountains, canyons (wet) and other places where there are no trails. I am looking for a hand held GPS unit that has mapping, altimeter and a fair amount of memory and that can take a beating. Doing Geocaching sounds like fun, but I nly know one person in our area that does it and he told me to ask this question here. I am also a bare boat charter person and like sailing in the Caribbean. The last two charters my companions had a dedicated marine GPS that I did not pay attention to, but this next trip they are not coming and I was thinking that I will either have to rent one or provide my own. Is there such a thing as a good dual purpose GPS that will allow me the best of both worlds? What do I look for? What software do I need for a basic set-up for both areas of my life? Does a Garmon 60CS fit the bill? David