Jack Erbes wrote:
> Maloney's wrote:
>> Can anyone recommend products I should consider that gives me a
>> ****table chartplotter/GPS and auto navigation all in one device. I
>> can think of the Garmin 378/478 and the Lowrance Iway 600C. Any
>> thoughts?
>>
>
> The Garmin "x" series are as good as it get for that kind of use.
> That would be the 60Cx, 60CSx, 76Cx, and 76CSx. I have the 76Cx and
> could not live without it. The 60 and 76 models vary only in shape
> and button locations, the displays and features are identical
> regardless of what the Garmin specs say. The CSx models have a
> barometer and compass that will give stationary bearings and more
> accurate elevations.
>
> I do seasonal boat deliveries and have to find boats by road or get
> home by road and also wanted to have something with me with my
> previously used/known to be good marine routes. So the 76Cx is my
> traveling library for destinations and has my full library of marine
> routes. It is a backup for the equipment on the boats, and also
> covers the cases where the boat does not have a chart chip for the
> waters at both ends of the delivery route.
>
> The 76Cx has both City Navigator (street and highway) and BlueChart
> (marine charts) on it and I can switch from one to the other in a few
> seconds.
>
> It will find and get me to just about any street address in the U.S.
> The POI databases let me quickly find and get to air****ts, motels,
> rental car agencies. I'm often the only guy in the taxi that knows
> how to get to my destination. And it will do all that with full
> autorouting and automatic off route recalculation on the highway
> mapping. When you use it in the car you're working with a smallish
> display and no voice prompts but it will sound a pre-maneuver alarm
> and it has two pages (the Active Route and Turn Preview pages) that
> provide excellent and easily read at a glance navigation prompts.
>
> I get in discussions verging on arguments all the time about the
> suitability of the handhelds for use in a car. Many don't think they
> are suitable for that use because of the small display and the lack of
> voice prompts but those are people that have never used them in a car
> and are jumping to conclusions because of the size if it.
>
> If you're serious about the navigation related features (full multiple
> destination routing, full and absolute control of routing, track
> recording and storage, user configurable data fields and info,
> time/speed/distance info, etc., etc.) these handhelds are way smarter
> than any of the Nuvis or other dash mounted models. I can travel for
> week or months on end and record tracks for later as long as I have
> some free space on the microSD external memory.
>
> I travel with a DC outlet power cable and use my 76Cx on external
> power when I can but I can get through a long day on a pair of AA
> cells. The 60/76 "x" series models are rugged and waterproof. The
> SiRF III chip set may have been equaled in performance but I don't
> know of anything on the market that surp***** the receiving
> sensitivity and general accuracy of these receivers.
>
> In all my travels in cars, boats, and on foot in the woods, I've never
> found a need to connect an external antenna to get or maintain a fix.
> The fix quality will go down under heavy cover and in some cars and
> buildings, and you'll lose fix in metal and heavy reinforced concrete
> buildings, but those are places where nothing will work.
>
> The BlueChart marine charts are as good as anything I've used. You
> just have to imagine that you are using a good chart plotter but
> limited to looking at it through a playing card sized hole. The
> im****tant details and soundings in my vicinity are clearly visible.
> I plan, check, and double check my routes on a PC, I have a chart
> book along, and I almost always have a full sized chart plotter too
> for the "big picture". And my eyes and ears are there too. The
> final arbitrator for where I am going to place the boat is usually
> the well tested and previously used magenta line and waypoints on the
> handheld. Those tell me that I know exactly where I am and that, in
> most cases, I've been in that same spot before without anything bad
> things happening.
>
> The Garmin "x" series handhelds are the most versatile GPS receivers
> on the market. If I were only going to own a single GPS receiver, my
> 76Cx (or maybe a 76CSx) would be it.
I endorse everything you say about these units Jack, what amazes me is why
anyone needs to ask the question?
Dennis.
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