Forkeye

First off,does your compass have an ajustable declination scale on it? If so then set it to the correct declination,the compass needle will now point to TRUE north ,but also you will no longer have to do the math every time you transfer a bearing from the map to the field or vice-versa.Now set your GPS to display TRUE north,and make sure every time you use your GPS to calibrate the compass.Now when your compass points north it is far easier to orientate your map to TRUE north. If your compass does not have an ajustable declination scale you will have to calculate your field and map bearings every time .If this is the case set your GPS to MAGNETIC to match your hand held and align your map to MAGNETIC North.My compass on my 76csx which is the same as your compass is not that good,it has an acurracy of about +/- 5 deg.You can see this if you do a sight-n-go.Then move around ,then come back to where you were originally standing and the compass is pointing off a fair bit.A good hand held compass rarely lies.Get a Suunto,Brunton or Silva mirrored sighting compass with ajustable declination and always carry it and a proper topo paper map with your GPS.

That blue ring never seemed to make sense to me.If the EPE displayed is say +/- 5m and your in the center of the blue circle,then the blue circle should be 10m across in my opinion,but mine is always alot bigger than double the EPE.Am I wrong about how it works?Or just too critical?

check out gpsinformation.net lots of gps info and other links to maps,datums and co-ordinate systems etc.,write ups and reviews on various units.

So now you know what an easting and a northing are.Get a compass with a romer on it,an "L" shaped scale to match your map scale,and a paper map with UTM grid lines.Get him to show you MGR ,a variation of UTM.Get your position from the GPS,use the compass romer to show where you are on the map.

Press and hold enter to mark your position,from that waypoint page you can scroll to change the co-ordinates ,the waypoint name or the symbol.Make sure you go into system setup units and select the co-ordinates and datum you require.For geocaghing thats h.dd.dddd and WGS 84 .As stated above use the software if you can.Trip and waypoint manager ,mapsource or easy gps.

Even the Garmin National Park topos 1:24k dont show many trails.I have quite a few different high quality paper maps that I use for hiking and even the trails drawn on them are an approximation of the real trail,they never show all the switch backs ,ups and downs etc.Roads and other geographical points seem pretty good on Garmin topos.They are of recreational quality not survey quality.

Hmmm...maybe Garmin doesnt want to make these units too good.Lots of people have great ideas for the 60csx & 76csx.If Garmin puts all these good ideas into them for free,whose going to buy the new ones?Especially if the newer ones dont work as good as the older ones.

If I remember correctly,after you upgrade to 3.60 it will ask you if you want to upgrade the chipset to 3.00.Maybe 3.00 wont work without 3.60 ,I dont know.But I now have both on my 76csx. and havent noticed any performance change for better or worse.

For software version turn on the unit,wait till the welcome screen goes off,press menu twice,select setup-press enter,select system-press enter,press menu,select software version-press enter ...software version 3.60...below GPS SW Version 3.00 ie chipset..below unit ID/serial #

When you loose your compass needle ,be sure to check to see if you still have adequate sattilite reception.If you do not have a 2D or 3D fix you will not have a compass needle.There is a delay from when you loose a position fix untill you get an audible warning.If its drifting in and out of reception it could be your problem.Even though these units have very good receivers ,in a thick forrested area with the unit pointed toward the ground by your side ,you can still sometimes loose reception.

Maybe its not optimum,but I've canoed the broken Island group on the west coast of Vancouver Island with my GPS 76csx just using topo Canada and a paper topo map for backup and it worked just fine.Topo USA seems adequate too .I would not buy any pre-programed sd cards because you cannot use any of them on your computer.Get the Bluechart cd ,it comes with 1 unlock code and then just buy another code and you can get all of Vancouver Island and all of Puget Sound.Kind of sucks how Garmin chops up the Pacific North West just to get more money out of you with Blue Chart.

Re-draw time too high?Turn the map detail off the most setting, set it to more or normal.There is not a big differance in detail between most and more except in the re- draw time.When you are zoomed in and need the most detail ,then change it.I leave my 76csx on the more setting all the time ,re-draw time is always less than a second.I would wait for the Colorado,they are full of bugs right now,some of which could be hardware related.Its very poor of Garmin to be releasing these units this way,lets face it if you bought a new TV or computer and it was as bugy as the Colorados you would return it ,right?I would.

Please dont anyone take it the wrong way ,but I would never buy a new model GPS unit from anyone.Garmin units are just full of bugs every single time they release a unit,which I personaly think stinks! These units are not ready for release,they are basically using us to Beta test their products while trying to recoup some of the engineering and production costs.Their mannuals are also very poor in some areas of the unit operation and when you call tech. support they act as if their are no problems and try to blame it on anything but the unit ,somtimes they cant even explain the proper operation of the unit.These problems are only going to get worse as they continue to try to create more gaget features.I am not saying another brand is better ,just saying Garmin needs to smarten up.I have a Garmin 12 and 76csx but I wont be lining up any time soon for anything new from Garmin,till I can count on it performing as advertised out of the box!

In my opinion the 12 series were the best case style Garmin has yet made,very rugged,using my GPS 12 I could go anywhere my 76CSX will take me,just had to know how to use a map and compass due to the lack of GPS maps,but it will work just fine for geocaching using its own map screen.

I have Topo 2008 and National Parks West (NPW). NPW has more detail 1:24k and for the most part the contour interval is less than topo 2008 1:100k ,not many trails on either ,secondary road coverage is about the same on both,again NPW always a bit better,lakes are slightly more defined .Topo 2008 is quite adequate for all regions in general .It showed lots of roads in Blaine Washington,a town so small you can drive through it in 5 min.For cross country travel topo 2008 is good ,but for hiking get your National Park cd.

I'll just keep my 76 csx,works fine for me,I dont have any issues with any of the items mentioned,and mine floats and takes an external ant. I don't like beta testing new products,and in a year that Vista is just going to be another dinosuar just like mine .It sounds like some people have to buy every new model that comes along just because its a little better.Thats exactly what Garmin wants you to do to,its built into their marketing plan.

I chose the 76 csx because it is easier to operate the buttons with one hand,it floats and it lays flat,I would never pick an etrex model,I like the bigger screen.Get at least a 1 gig mem. card that will give you tons of room.Find a place where you can hold the 2 and then decide.They are idetical in operation,exact same software,same guts,different box.Anything new from Garmin is always full of bugs for a while.

I would like to se Garmin bring back the case style of the 12 series units,they were easy to hold and operate and looked good ,were reliable too .They could slightly reduce the size.Better than that silly joy stick .Looks too easy to break to me.

Why dont you keep it.It will provide much more detail for than your basemap if you go on vacation and are out on the highway traveling around.You can check out the detail on Garmins site,with the viewer they have.

Sorry Stephen ,I dont know of any way that the GPS indicates which map set it is using.I think its safe to assume that in the city any of the street level map sets would have priority over a topo map ,and in the country ,the topo maps would show up.I can tell you that the GPS picks topo 24 k over topo 2008 if you have both loaded,but of course only in the areas where they overlap.I am not 100% sure but I think topo 2008 overides the basemap,that came on your unit.Just play with it ,you will figure it out .

When I go on a week long back country trip,I always carry a paper map and a real compass and one set of batteries inside my GPS.I turn on my GPS only every now and then just to get a position fix when in doubt.I have never found a need to have my GPS running constantly.Before GPS you had to navigate with map and compass and if you dont know how to do that you should not be going into the back country with a pack load of batteries and your GPS alone,at the most I would only take one extra set as every gram of spare junk you take will add up so fast ,your legs will colapse.

The 76 csx will also float,and lay flat without rocking I found it more comfortable to operate with one hand than the 60 csx ,but if your hands are smaller it might not be for you .Also If your close up vission is not the best you might need to take your reading glasses with you with your Hcx.The CSX units are larger,but the weight differance is only minute.Look at all three and hold each one,and get rechargable NiMh batteries ,don't buy based on power consumption.Also the 60 & 76 can use an external antenna and have tide tables.

I have found that talking to Garmin techs about a GPS problem is useless.They will always try to blame it on your location,the weather something you must of done,they will never admit that it is a known problem,and say we are working on it and there will be a software release shortly.I have asked about things that were never mentioned in their operation mannuals about the unit, and still only gotten vague awnsers.If Garmin doesnt know how they work then who does???.Having worked in the electronics industry for years,and having done many software updates to many pieces of equipment,often screwing up more issues than fixing issues,I am reluctant to try any new software if I cannot revert back to the old.

Stephen ,when you get to that list of maps,press menu again and now it will display a list of the different map sets ,software that you have loaded.It will say HIDE or SHOW beside each map software set.Hide of course turns it off.The GPS will automatically pick the one which it deems best,I guess there is a hidden software program that checks all the loaded software,but it can be overiden by selecting the hide feature.Oh by the way the Garmin mannual,as thick as it is,does not explain alot of things about either the GPS unit itself or GPS in general.The mannual is very vague in some areas of unit operation ,so if in doubt ,just ask .