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Finaly I did it. A Garmin Gpsmap 76S is my first gps unit. Any hints ??


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You are going to love it. You were smarter than me as I started at the bottom and then moved up to the 76S. My only suggestion is to make sure you go to the Garmin site and download the most up to date firmware ( I believe it is now 3.20 ) my gps came loaded with 2.10 so I upgraded to the 3.20. It is no big deal and a snap to do if you follow the instructions. I also bought the Mapsource TOPO and I think it was worth the money as it adds so much to the basemaps already installed on the 76S.

sidewinder

 

LOST AND FOUND DEPT.

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The GPSMAP 76S' manual put me to sleep, so here's some hints that may help you out:

 

1) Holding down the PAGE key toggles the electronic compass on and off. Remember to turn it off! It sucks up batteries like you wouldn't believe. Because of its increased current drain, the machine may shut itself off when low, and not give you the chance to turn the compass off when you reset it, before it dies again. Carry spare AAs!

 

2) There's a boatload of options. For caching, I like the following settings on the map screen: Change two of the data fields to have Accuracy and Distance to Next. This helps you decide how close you are to the waypoint. With up to nine fields, there's bound to be others you'll want to use. I also like to keep the time visible on the map page.

 

3) Use the "Bearing Line" which will give you a moving line pointing to the waypoint. The Course Line, on the other hand, only shows the line from your starting point and doesn't move.

 

4) The basemap has some serious accuracy issues. MapSource Metroguide has been pretty good for me, but your mileage may vary.

 

5) Carry spare batteries.

 

I am Arrowroot, son of Arrowshirt. I have many names, you know

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Hi thanks for answer. I have already updated it. Np at all.

What kind of maps d y recomend ?

Regards

Tor Egon

 

'

quote:
Originally posted by SIDEWINDER:

You are going to love it. You were smarter than me as I started at the bottom and then moved up to the 76S. My only suggestion is to make sure you go to the Garmin site and download the most up to date firmware ( I believe it is now 3.20 ) my gps came loaded with 2.10 so I upgraded to the 3.20. It is no big deal and a snap to do if you follow the instructions. I also bought the Mapsource TOPO and I think it was worth the money as it adds so much to the basemaps already installed on the 76S.

sidewinder

 

LOST AND FOUND DEPT.


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I upgraded to a 76S and one thing I found is that it seems to take longer to lock on to the satellites. I have an external antenna in the car and a car power adapter, and I like to have it locked on and set for a "go to" as I drive up to the cache site, so I can just jump out of the car and go. This is especially useful when you are hunting a cache in a high visibility area and do not want to attract attention. It also helps if you parked illegally.

 

The maps are tough, I understand the map selection for Europe is not as extensive as the USA, but I did see a thread in the GPS software section where experts can load their own custom maps into the Garmin unit, but I can't even understand the proceedure, let alone do it.

 

One thing I really like is that you can have two types of maps loaded for the same region, like a road map for the approach. Then you go into the main menu (by clicking menu twice), click map source info, then click menu again to select a topo map to use on the hike in.

 

This unit is really sophisticated, and after two months of frequent use, I am still learning. Some one mentioned changing data fields, and i agree with what they recommended, but I would try every function on that baby out in the woods, learn to customize it on the fly, so you can optimize the setting for whatever task you are trying accomplish. The only section I haven't used is the Celestial Section.

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I am not much help on the maps to load. You are really at a handicap for getting maps that you can download for you area. I think Garmin thinks only people in the US buy their products and therefore don't pay as much attention as they should to customers in other areas of the world when it comes to their mapping software. I have Mapsource TOPO and it works great for me. I don't have the problem some have with their city and road information being outdated as the old world topo doesn't change that much. Ha Ha. All good advice in earlier posts and I am glad your update went smoothly. I was afraid when I downloaded the first beta version that if anything was going to happen it would happen to me. Hope you enjoy the 76S and happy geocaching.

sidewinde

 

LOST AND FOUND DEPT.

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welcome to the 'club'..

 

all you have to do now is buy an antenna and wire it through your sleeve and up towards your foam backed baseball hat (Wal-Mart on sale $2.99) that reads 'i love mom', and duct tape the end to the top....

 

next carry it everywhere you go,, and just ramdomly start repeating coordinates.. even indoors...

 

now you are GEOCACHING...

 

hahhahaa

 

lates....

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Mikkel, thats a LOT of unit for a newbie,it'll keep you busy for a long time.

as for maps,depends what you want to use the unit for,caching,boating,driving, all of the above?

theres another poster here whose name is "anders" he lives in sweden so he may be able to best tell you what maps are available and worth your time for your area of europe.

for more info on tips for that unit best I can add is do a search of the boards and you'll have even more info to wade though.

thats the unit I have and I love it.

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I am going to use the GPS for geocashing all the way. My wife and kids realy love this sport and we have noe prepared 4 cashes to be hidden.

THe only thing I cant figure out is why it sometimes says acc. 3 mtr and acc 11 mtr. Is that depending on how many satelites is has connected to ?

Ans brw if the war breaks out now will the gps system be shut down ??

 

Thanks for all help icon_smile.gificon_eek.gif

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If you mean "accuracy 3 meters and sometimes accuracy 11 meters" this depends on different factors, including whether or not WAAS is enabled and working (which I doubt it would for you because of where you live)...

You may want to read up on how GPS works and what different factors can cause positioning discrepancies, etc...

 

sean

 

OH... and since you're a new owner, if you're looking for a carrying-case, I'd recommend this one:

http://www.thegpsstore.com/site/images/BE200.jpg

I bought it for my 76S and love it... There's a thread here: http://opentopic.Groundspeak.com/0/OpenTopic?a=tpc&s=1750973553&f=5740990093&m=3270969055

that talks about 76S cases as well...

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