raouljan

I have found that my "hold level" message appears to happen more frequently when I need to calibrate my compas. Try doing a calibration and see what happens.

I feel your pain! I use my GPSr on river trips all the time. One thing I have found is that in sinuations, river miles tend to be about 2X "crow flys" miles. One thing I would really, really like if for MapSource to create a track following a contour line or some natural surface feature, like, say, a river. I have done the San Juan and the Green rivers with the 'ol GPSr in hand. One of the things I do is put river mile markers on the map by reconciling the MapSource map to the "Mile by Mile" maps that are avilable in the handy little river books.

More of a suggestiion for MapSource... The ability to generate a route or track that follows a feature like a river .... Select the start point and end point and it draws a line that can be converted into a route or track... would make the GPSr more user friendly for river running...

Try MicroDEM http://www.nadn.navy.mil/Users/oceano/pgut...te/microdem.htm

And your GPSr datum is set to the same datum as the co-ords you are comparing against... 75 feet is way too far off ...

I don't suppose you added anything like a PDA that might be sitting on that port.

I know the "Hold Level" warning can be a real pain. However it has nothing to do with the calibration. Try this ... Get a little round level from the hardware store. They come in handy for a number of things and don't cost much. Put the level on top of the GPSr (where the compass display is) and tilt the unit until the level bubbles to the center. That is what the GPSr thinks is level and should make the "Hold Level" message go away. Try this a couple of times and you will forever know what level is.

Take a look at the signal format. It is basically a "super frame" configuration. http://gpsinformation.net/gpssignal.htm There are other documents out there with more detail ... some of the sub-frames appear to have free words. Since all the frames are transmitted (even the empty ones), yes .. it would appear that the bandwidth exists.

How 'bout this..... The folks at GPS Central and the National Weather Service get together and download the current weather forecast via some of the unused bits in the data frame... then you can get the weather on your GPSr! And with the maping GPSr you could see the weater fronts, dry-line, etc. superimposed on the map!

Well .. welcome to the wonderful world of comercial GPS units. If you are trying to get "great" topo maps into a maping GPSr I think you have some time to wait. I have found that the MapSource maps and the Gamin units to be a pretty good combination. By resolution and clarity I assume that you are talking about the units display. In which case bigger is always better and color does help out. NG Topo has great maps, but they dont download to any unit I know of. All units work with Topo, but only on a laptop or your desktop. As far as accuracy goes... all units are pretty much the same. WAAS gets a lot of talk but I have not found that it delivers all that much more accuracy. A good external antenna is probably a better solution. Battery life is something of which we all need more of. My Garmin 76s runs about two 8 hour days in battery saver mode. Face it, GPS owners subsidize the battery industry. Rechargeables are the way to go. As far as durability goes... IMHO durability is inversly related to the number of buttons something has... The Garmins are known for being pretty tough units, but most other units match... The one thing to be aware of is that the screens tend to be pretty soft and scratch... screen protectors are a very cheap bit of insurance. Hope this helps ... choosing a GPS is just slightly more difficult that picking a spouse... IMHO

I think the answer is ... "no" I tried the same thing on my 76S, which has a lot in common with the Vista. I tried cursoring over to the waypoint and hit "enter" and got the standard waypoint screen, "menu" did not provide any help... However, one does wonder why you would want to do this?

Garmin 76 (map / sensor) S or CS. Nice sized unit. nice display, batteries last, takes an external antenna, etc.

Is that realy a web page? i like browsing the web fot things like this. No ... It is a "News" group ... you can get at it from google from the "Groups" selection above the search box.

FtMgAl, Dude, it's a game ... OK? Did you really say "rigor"? What the heck do you think this is? You want rigor? Take it to sci.engr.surveying. Or do you just want to go try and find some little brass dots?

Try OziExplorer... http://www.oziexplorer.com/ You can scan in maps, plot your tracks on top of them ... lots of cool stuff

The case can be .. but the screen sure aint! Nothing like a nice 1 inch scratch across the middle of a $400 GPSr to REALLY ruin a days caching!

If you find one .. take a casting! I would be happy to buy an aluminium copy!

I agree ... I am dying to log "VORTEX"... Perhaps a "Premium Bench Mark" membership to cover the cost of the CD?

There was a discussion thread a while back about Becnch Mark hunting equipment and metal detectors got a lot of talk. There was even one that straped to your foot! Try the search engine.

Now you know the reason behind the weasel screen. I remember back in the "old" days (say '94).... people in the Santa Cruz mountains would park their car in a clump of bushes, mark a waypoint and head out into the hinderlands..... when they cam back they could not find their cars.... of course back then SA was on... but still

GAWK SP2 = 266 Meg! For those of you in modem land (like myself) ... this represents about 26 hours of download (assuming that your ISP does not drop you .. in which case you get to start alllllllllllll over again) Does anyone know if this can be downloaded from a machine on a network and transfered to the target?

Cable is very thin.... I run mine thru the corner of the passenger front door and post at the window corner. No leaks or road noise.

Check.... http://www.geocaching.com/mark/details.aspx?PID=JK1245 http://www.geocaching.com/mark/details.aspx?PID=JK1247

And...... Some have major historic value and some are located in very interesting places! For example, there is one on top of Pikes Peak (Colorado) and on top of most of the 14,000+ peaks..... Some have cool names, like "VORTEX" in Sedona (Az). Most (however) are in rather mundane places ... but it is still a good game of "hide and seek", and in some cases you find one that has not been found in decades and you get to update the USGS database (and your name will live forever).

I have a 76s which I use a lot in the car. It does not have a heated windshield, but just being in the car knock down the reception quite a bit. I got an enxternal (GPSGeek) and mounted it on the roof. BANG, 9 sats at full bars. Even when driving through all those nasty places that usually cut reception to 0. IMHO .. if you have the coin and you spend a lot of time in the car, get the antenna. You will not be dissapointed.