Picking up a used 28.5 Hunter sailboat that has depth, speed and direction
gauges. I therefore need a new GPS unit since the old Garmin does not go
with the boat. The external GPS antenna stays with the boat.

What has me very confused is what maps are needed. We will be on the Hudson
River, perhaps Lake George and perhaps the area near the port of NYC and
along the near coast line.

With this in mind should I stay with a Garmin unit, or are there others out
there in the sub $600 price range that are musts for consideration?

What specific unit makes the most sense?

Richard

"Richard" wrote in news:13bednp2lmp32f0
@corp.supernews.com:

What specific unit makes the most sense?


https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?cID=148&pID=8055
I just put the Garmin GPSMAP 440 on a friend's new Jenneau 40. It has
the whole country's coastal maps INCLUDED with it and you can buy the new
map plugs for it if you need more. Even our new docks at the local
marina are in it. The lowest range is like 30 feet!

You won't need any antenna. The antenna is built right inside its 12-
channel receiver all in the unit. I powered it up in the cabin after
unboxing it and it got a fix in less than 30 seconds from a cold start!

It's within $40 of your price point, and that includes all the charts for
it you'll probably ever need....even Hawaii and Alaska you won't.

It's fully WAAS GPS compliant and the boat even showed up on the correct
side of our fingerpier after I mounted it at the helm. Unless you want
to integrate it's NMEA/Garmin data ports to your other instruments, all
you do is hook the red wire with the fuse to +12V and black wire to - and
you're ready to sail.

The mount is great, too! Unlike previous models that only pointed in one
direction, the new mount SWIVELS with a good ratchet gadget to hold it in
whatever position you turn it to. This works great on his Jenneau
because you can turn it away from the helm to the side seats when the
autopilot is steering so you can keep an eye on the position and
waypoints while sitting elsewhere. Be sure you leave enough CABLE to let
it swing all the way around. It tilts easy too for best viewing.

We ordered another mount and power/data cable to install in Joe's hard-
bottom dingy. Unplug one plug and move it to the dink and you can have
GPS charts, even depth if you buy the model with a depth sounder in it,
when anchored out and exploring in the dingy. Not a bad idea in heavy
islands with many confusing paths to get lost in! The coax connector on
the unit is for an external GPS antenna, but you won't need it unless you
have a steel boat or hard top. The sounder connection is in the same
multipin cable as power and data in sounder models.

The screen is VERY bright if you turn it all the way up, making it easy
to read in the sun in color!

Larry
--
Stuff keeps gettin' better'n better.....(c;

Larry wrote:
"Richard" wrote in news:13bednp2lmp32f0
@corp.supernews.com:

What specific unit makes the most sense?


https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?cID=148&pID=8055
I just put the Garmin GPSMAP 440 on a friend's new Jenneau 40. It has
the whole country's coastal maps INCLUDED with it and you can buy the new
map plugs for it if you need more. Even our new docks at the local
marina are in it. The lowest range is like 30 feet!

You won't need any antenna. The antenna is built right inside its 12-
channel receiver all in the unit. I powered it up in the cabin after
unboxing it and it got a fix in less than 30 seconds from a cold start!

It's within $40 of your price point, and that includes all the charts for
it you'll probably ever need....even Hawaii and Alaska you won't.
snip

I'm not disagreeing with Larry's recommendation, that looks like a good
unit.

It or one of the other newer unit like it was discussed here or on the
Garmin newsgroup recently. Some unanswered questions came up as to what
the options are for importing waypoints and routes. And for doing route
planning somewhere else and importing the data via the SD card.

The manual says or implies that routes, waypoints, and tracks can be
saved to and imported from the SD card but it makes no mention of what
the format for doing that is.

The 440 does not come with any charting for use on a PC (like Garmin's
MapSource BlueChart for example).

Many boaters like to review their tracks and plan routes away from the
boat, whether or not the 440 lends itself to that it not clear.

If that is something you want to do a call to Garmin tech support might
sort out some of the details.

Some of the newer Garmin automotive models will read some data from
*.gpx files stored on the SD card. Maybe that is the case here too.

Garmin seems to be focused on not burdening the minds of buyers with too
much technical detail about newer models. Which leaves some of the
folks that know what they want a little in the dark.

If anyone wants a small route in *.gpx file for testing, email me. I
can send you one. Or if you want to save a route or other data from a
440 and send it to me, I'll see if I can read it with MapSource.

I use the DVD based MapSource BlueChart charting on my GPSmap 76Cx
handheld and consider it excellent. Arguably as good as or better than
anything else available. It is a licensed version of the Navionics
vector charts. I'm guessing that is the charting you get preloaded when
you buy the 440.

Jack

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

Old scoop, Jack! Navionics' web site says "Garmin used to license
Navionics cartography data and formatted their own chips sold as G-
Charts. Garmin now uses their own cartography." That happened when
they came out with BlueCharts several years ago. Navionics tripled
what they were charging Garmin. They are not friends anymore.

I use mapsource to generate and move waypoints among all my Garmin
GPS', from my Etrex to my 162, my 182C, my 3010C and my 4208. I also
used i to put some routes and waypoints into a friends new 545, a very
sweet unit!

Yes, its easier to create good waypoints and routes when you have
purchased charts for your PC, such as the BlueChart CD (9.5 is the
latest version) but you can also use Mapsource to open *.gpx routes
and load them to the GPSs. A free ride is available with a demo
version of Coastal Explorer and a download of Free NOAA charts. Where
I used to need Garmin's proprietary chip reader, still available for
$60 for all Garmin's previous (pre 2007) GPSs, the new units use SD
memory cards. I bought a 2 gig chip and reader at Best Buy for $24!.

wrote in news:1188239873.992638.13220
@g4g2000hsf.googlegroups.com:

the new units use SD
memory cards. I bought a 2 gig chip and reader at Best Buy for $24!

www.newegg.com

Memory's really cheap. No membership necessary.

I paid $18 for mine.

Larry
--