pietsch

my 60csx does not charge batteries with a connected usb cable. I took the battery out and measured the voltage on the contacts – nothing there… Regards pietsch

I never go hiking without Garmin's external antenna GA27c and the GPSMAP76S. The antenna is under the cover of my backpack and the GPS is hanging on the abdominal belt from the backpack with an excellent reception. This way it's easy to record the hiking track - no matter where you keep the GPS. I let the unused part of the thin coaxial cable wound up in the backpack – so it wont disturb you at all. Regards Pietsch

If I understand your question right, then go to the map screen, open in the screen menu "Setup Map" and go to the "Line"-list: "Course Line" is now "AUTO" and "Bearing Line" is "OFF". Change the "Course Line" to "OFF" and "Bearing Line" to "AUTO". Regards Pietsch

I always use the GPSMap 76S with a GA27C antenna when I'm hiking. On top of the backpack you get a much better reception, not only from the more powerful antenna, also your body covers less the sky. The additional current for the antenna is under 7ma (nothing to worry about). If you want to get everything out of an external antenna, mount it on a stick which slightly overtops your head and put it into the backpack. It works better than it sounds :-) Pietsch

It belongs not exactly to that topic, but as I read the activated WAAS/EGNOS mode consumes more power, I got curious about that so I measured my GPSMAP 76S. The following data are averaged values (incl. an ext. antenna): Battery save mode on: 150 ma Battery save mode off: 160 ma Compass on: additional 30 ma WAAS on: additional 7 ma (receiving EGNOS #33 and #44 grey bars) Conclusion: Since the compass automatically switches off while moving, there isn't much power to save at all – so I let the GPS run with anything on to hunt that "D"... (hopefully we get satisfied in April).

I'm using it for a week now and it works fine.

If you are looking for the best possible reception under havy trees and if you are willing to use an external antenna then a great choice is the GPSMap76(s) with the external antenna connector. Tests with a vista and a GPSmap76S showed that vista has a slightly lower reception. With a small external active antenna on top of a back bag we had an outstanding better reception than with the receiver itself. Since our body covers a part of the sky, the place on top of a back bag will increase a good reception even more.