I bought the Magnum 40 today. It is a nice unit
and the screen is very readable even in bright
sunlight. It has sort of a two-tone format with
black and brown fields that look gold in the
sunlight. It has a nifty red backlighting for
nighttime use. The 40 does not have map
input capabilities but it does come with
a PC cable so it can send its position to
a laptop for use with such programs as
the Cap'n and Offshore Navigator with
electronic charts all of which I managed
to download bootleg copies.

It also has 19 hour battery life (4-AA)
50 hours in battery save mode. 18,000
cities and Airports in worldwide database.
31,000 navigation aids (lights and buoys)
in database. WAAS enabled - 3 meters
accuracy. NMEA in and out. Three-year
warranty.

The little screen on a handheld is just too
small to be of much value when working
with electronic charts so that's why I
ended up getting the necessary software
for my computer and a handheld for
position input. This is the best of both
worlds IMHO.

S.Simon


"Wally" wrote in message ...
Simple Simon wrote:

Given all the features and good warranty it sounds hard to beat.
I wonder about input, however, I can see only three buttons.

Spec looks pretty good. The 'nav1' screen shot on the West Marine page looks
like it might be hard to read - I'd like to see how that is on the actual
machine. The middle button of the three might be a cursor type (as on the
dearer eTrex models). Having the buttons at the bottom might make it a bit
awkward to hold when using it single-handed - with the buttons above the
screen, my GPS12 sits well in the hand and I work the buttons with my thumb.


--
Wally
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