Hello, I am a long time user of garmin units and am ready for a newer model.
I currently use a 12XL. I have no interest in moving maps, street directions,
voice response, etc. I use the GPS unit for backpacking and hunting only. I
run Oziexplorer at home and mark waypoints on 7.5 minute topos. I then load
the waypoints into my 12XL and carry the accompanying paper topo maps with me.
What I am interested in is getting a Garmin unit that I can load a minimum of
two 7.5 minute maps with waypoints (4 would be better) so the map displays on
the unit rather than having to get my position from the 12XL and then go to
the paper map and see where I am. I would also prefer that the unit accepts
the same external amplified antenna that the 12XL uses. Any suggestions??
TIA


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"Steve" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed) m...
> Hello, I am a long time user of garmin units and am ready for a newer
> model.
> I currently use a 12XL. I have no interest in moving maps, street
> directions,
> voice response, etc. I use the GPS unit for backpacking and hunting only.
> I
> run Oziexplorer at home and mark waypoints on 7.5 minute topos. I then
> load
> the waypoints into my 12XL and carry the accompanying paper topo maps with
> me.
> What I am interested in is getting a Garmin unit that I can load a minimum
> of
> two 7.5 minute maps with waypoints (4 would be better) so the map displays
> on
> the unit rather than having to get my position from the 12XL and then go
> to
> the paper map and see where I am. I would also prefer that the unit
> accepts
> the same external amplified antenna that the 12XL uses. Any suggestions??
> TIA
>
>

Garmin GPSMap 76CSx!

http://www.gpsnavigatorreviews.com/g...ionreview.html

http://gpsinformation.us/gps60c/g76Creview.html

--
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and http://www.flickr.com/photos/macarthur-ii/

Hi,

A GPSMAP 76 CSx like MacArthur has mentioned would be a BIG step from
the GPS 12XL, considering how many features there are between the two.
The 76 CSx is mighty expensive, too!

I am not sure if any Garmin units from today can take a GPS 12XL
external antenna, but these are my recommdations to you:

eTrex Venture HC
GPSMAP 76
GPSMAP 60

These are basic, lower-cost units that are mapping (and therefore topo
map) capable. There are even cheaper mapping units such as the eTrex
Legend or the eTrex Legend H, but I don't recommend them to you
because the eTrex units with the black and white displays are famous
for trouble with the displays and joysticks. (I owned an eTrex Legend
which the joystick broke after 10 months.) Those problems are fixed in
the color screen eTrex units. (Like the Venture HC.)

Hope this helps,

-Trent

On Jan 26, 5:37*pm, a...@teleport.com (Steve) wrote:
> Hello, I am a long time user of garmin units and am ready for a newer model. *
> I currently use a 12XL. *I have no interest in moving maps, street directions,
> voice response, etc. *I use the GPS unit for backpacking and hunting only. *I
> run Oziexplorer at home and mark waypoints on 7.5 minute topos. *I thenload
> the waypoints into my 12XL and carry the accompanying paper topo maps with me.
> What I am interested in is getting a Garmin unit that I can load a minimum of
> two 7.5 minute maps with waypoints (4 would be better) so the map displays on
> the unit rather than having to get my position from the 12XL and then go to
> the paper map and see where I am. *I would also prefer that the unit accepts
> the same external amplified antenna that the 12XL uses. *Any suggestions??
> TIA
>
> ---
> avast! Antivirus: Outbound message clean.
> Virus Database (VPS): 090125-0, 01/25/2009
> Tested on: 1/26/2009 2:37:15 PM
> avast! - copyright (c) 1988-2009 ALWIL Software.http://www.avast.com

I've got a Garmin 12 that's been true & faithful for many years. This
winter Santa brought a Legend HCX w/ Topo USA 2008. I'm all set for
when the northeast gets its own 24K map chip, but the 100,000:1 gives
good enough detail for most situations. I'll still have my home-brew
atlas of 24K topos printed from Maptech's Terrain Navigator in the
vehicle, but now I won't have to toss the pages of interest in my pack
basket. Best of both worlds for my taste. And the Legend communicates
w/ Maptech, USAPhotomaps as well as Topo USA just fine.

Now, if there were some way to "freeze" the zoom level when jumping
focus away from one's immediate surroundings . . . . .

pmh wrote:
<snip>
>
> I've got a Garmin 12 that's been true & faithful for many years. This
> winter Santa brought a Legend HCX w/ Topo USA 2008. I'm all set for
> when the northeast gets its own 24K map chip, but the 100,000:1 gives
> good enough detail for most situations. I'll still have my home-brew
> atlas of 24K topos printed from Maptech's Terrain Navigator in the
> vehicle, but now I won't have to toss the pages of interest in my pack
> basket. Best of both worlds for my taste. And the Legend communicates
> w/ Maptech, USAPhotomaps as well as Topo USA just fine.
>
> Now, if there were some way to "freeze" the zoom level when jumping
> focus away from one's immediate surroundings . . . . .

I'm not sure what you mean by "jumping focus" but my 76Cx has a feature
called Autozoom where it will zoom back out to some preset level that it
likes after each turning maneuver or waypoint passing. That can be
turned off from the Setup Map or Map Setup menu. Press Menu > Menu >
choose Setup Map, press enter, and it is on the settings under the icon
on the left.

I always leave Autozoom off and as far as I can remember the zoom level
always stays at whatever level I set it to.

Jack


--
Jack Erbes in Ellsworth, Maine, USA (jacker at midmaine dot com)
(also receiving email at jackerbes at roadrunner dot com)

On Jan 26, 8:37*pm, Jack Erbes <jac...@midmaine.com> wrote:
> pmh wrote:
>
> <snip>
>
>
>
> > I've got a Garmin 12 that's been true & faithful for many years. This
> > winter Santa brought a Legend HCX w/ Topo USA 2008. I'm all set for
> > when the northeast gets its own 24K map chip, but the 100,000:1 gives
> > good enough detail for most situations. I'll still have my home-brew
> > atlas of 24K topos printed from Maptech's Terrain Navigator in the
> > vehicle, but now I won't have to toss the pages of interest in my pack
> > basket. Best of both worlds for my taste. And the Legend communicates
> > w/ Maptech, USAPhotomaps as well as Topo USA just fine.
>
> > Now, if there were some way to "freeze" the zoom level when jumping
> > focus away from one's immediate surroundings . . . . .
>
> I'm not sure what you mean by "jumping focus" but my 76Cx has a feature
> called Autozoom where it will zoom back out to some preset level that it
> likes after each turning maneuver or waypoint passing. *That can be
> turned off from the Setup Map or Map Setup menu. *Press Menu > Menu >
> choose Setup Map, press enter, and it is on the settings under the icon
> on the left.
>
> I always leave Autozoom off and as far as I can remember the zoom level
> always stays at whatever level I set it to.
>
> Jack
>
> --
> Jack Erbes in Ellsworth, Maine, USA (jacker at midmaine dot com)
> (also receiving email at jackerbes at roadrunner dot com)

Mine has auto-zoom, but either off or auto, when I try jumping beyond
waypoints "near current locaton," I get everything from Millinocket to
Madawaska & have to zoom in all over again. (The topos from 20 mile
elevation aren't particularly useful.) There seems no way to lock in a
given zoom level. And there seems no way to "lock" the newly located
wayopint to its own list of nearby points; the unit always reverts to
my present location. When contemplating points or routes somewhat
distant from me, this behavior becomes very time consuming. Any new
idea about locatons &/or routes I might have requires that I start all
over again from "square one" when square one might be 50 miles away
and have no bearing (sorry bout that) on what I'm trying to examine.

pmh wrote:
<snip>
>> I always leave Autozoom off and as far as I can remember the zoom level
>> always stays at whatever level I set it to.
>>
>> Jack

>
> Mine has auto-zoom, but either off or auto, when I try jumping beyond
> waypoints "near current locaton," I get everything from Millinocket to
> Madawaska & have to zoom in all over again. > (The topos from 20 mile
> elevation aren't particularly useful.)

I think I see what you mean now.

If I am at a 0.3 mi zoom level pick a waypoint that is about 40 miles
away from the nearby Waypoints list, then choose to "Map" it, the zoom
level changes to 20 miles.

And if I zoom in to 3 miles to look at the first waypoint closer and
then pick another waypoint that is 50 miles away from that one the zoom
level changes to 8 miles when I map the second one.

It looks like the zoom levels are sort of all over the place without any
rhyme or reason when you do it from a Find or Map choice.

The benefit for me on having the autozoom off is that if I pass a
waypoint in a narrow channel where I am really paying attention to the
soundings and stuff, the zoom level does not change. If I had Autozoom
on it would zoom out at each one on either a Follow Road or Off Road
route.

> There seems no way to lock in a
> given zoom level. And there seems no way to "lock" the newly located
> wayopint to its own list of nearby points; the unit always reverts to
> my present location.

If you press Menu from the Satellite page and choose Use with GPS Off,
then press Menu again and choose New Location it lets you relocate
yourself to another place with the cursor.

After you press Enter with the pointer at the new location, you can use
Find to look for waypoints near the new location. If you don't have any
nearby waypoints (within 50 miles I think?) it reports none found. If
you pick any of the POI categories (instead of a waypoint) it reports
those. If you pick Cities for example, it finds the nearest 50 cities.

> When contemplating points or routes somewhat
> distant from me, this behavior becomes very time consuming. Any new
> idea about locatons &/or routes I might have requires that I start all
> over again from "square one" when square one might be 50 miles away
> and have no bearing (sorry bout that) on what I'm trying to examine.

If you use the relocate yourself option you can look at and place
waypoint from the finds there and also from the cursor positions (long
press on Mark). For example, you could relocate yourself hundreds or
thousands of miles away and start placing waypoints to mark a route
(using logical names to indicate the sequence and make them easy to find
in a list too).

Then you could go to the route page, start a new route, and add those
waypoints (one at a time and somewhat laboriously) to build a route.
When you were done you would have the details on route legs, distances,
etc.

If you turned you GPS back on and activated the route in the it would
want to take you to the first waypoint in the route of course. And you
would have the option of using Follow Road or Off Road if your mapping
allowed it.

Using some of the functions on GPS receiver that is this "powerful" or
feature rich becomes a little laborious at times because of the user
interface. But I don't want a mouse and keyboard on my GPS receiver and
it is certainly better than not having the GPS. I'll forgive you pun if
you'll forgive my smartassed remarks. :>)

Jack

> If I am at a 0.3 mi zoom level pick a waypoint that is about 40 miles
> away from the nearby Waypoints list, then choose to "Map" it, the zoom
> level changes to 20 miles.

I can't get any waypoints further away than about 35 miles. (Somewhat
improved; see below.) If I go to the "recently found" list, I can jump
to one of them, regardless of distance from present location. But the
zoom level always jumps back to 20 miles whether the GPS receiver is
on or off and regardless of whether auto zoom is on or off.
>
> And if I zoom in to 3 miles to look at the first waypoint closer and
> then pick another waypoint that is 50 miles away from that one the zoom
> level changes to 8 miles when I map the second one.
>
I have more or less got the hang of this next phase (I moved your zoom
comment down a bit for convenience)>
>
> After you press Enter with the pointer at the new location, you can use
> Find to look for waypoints near the new location. *

What had me confused is the screen still reports "current location"
when actually it's an artificially selected location.
It's now much easier to locate waypoints further away than whatever
the little beastie considers "nearby." (But not as easy as having
access to a single listing of all stored waypoints.)

> It looks like the zoom levels are sort of all over the place without any
> rhyme or reason when you do it from a Find or Map choice.

Yep. All over.

> If you use the relocate yourself option you can look at and place
> waypoint from the finds there and also from the cursor positions (long
> press on Mark).

This becomes easier with practice, but still the zoom levels show no
discernible pattern.

> Then you could go to the route page, start a new route, and add those
> waypoints (one at a time and somewhat laboriously) to build a route.
> When you were done you would have the details on route legs, distances,
> etc.
Pretty much like the trusty old Garmin12. But, hey! Lookit the purty
colors!

Thanks for the help. No charge for puns.

Pete