On Tue, 08 Jun 2010 06:12:58 -0400, W1TEF
wrote:

On Mon, 07 Jun 2010 20:46:28 -0400, bpuharic wrote:

just sold my old garmin gpsmap on ebay so am now in market for cheap,
new chartplotter

looking at Standard Horizon CP180I Chartplotter which gets good
reviews and is about $420 at
http://www.antonline.com/p_CP180I-NX_629915.htm

or Garmin MAP 421S GPS CHARTPLOTTER available for $380.

any preferences?

thanks all

Stay away from Garmin. There are a number of reasons like limited
charts unless you buy from them, limited options, etc., but the main
reason is service - their customer service sucks big time. Still does
although they claim that they have "corrected" the mistakes of the
past.

Bullfeathers as my maternal Grandfather said in polite company.

Standard Horizon would be the better choice. The screen is a little
small and it has an internal antenna where I would prefer an external
antenna/reciever, but that is a personal choice. C-Map is a pretty
good charting/nav system so your ok there.

is the basemap adequate for use, or do i need a cmap? also, i'm
looking at some of the software available online for free...think that
can be interface with the unit

And Standard Horizon makes a fairly decent product - they work and are
fairly stable. If price point is your thing, that's the one.