Jack Erbes wrote:
Maloney's wrote:
Can anyone recommend products I should consider that gives me a
portable 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 airports, 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 surpasses 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
important 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.