I use a Garmin e-map. Great unit but buy the 76s. 76s is waterproof. My e-map quit and I had to send it to Garmin for service. The service was Supurb! You can't go wrong with a Garmin unit.

I just bought a Garmin e-trex Legend. You can get them for 200-250 bucks and they are blue chart compatable. It comes with the patch cord and you buy the blue chart cd for around 150 bucks. It's a nice little unit that is portable.

Thanks for the replies.

If I choose the Garmin76s, can I still use if for driving purposes along interstates and so??? Or is it a marine application only?:D

Yes you can, it functions very nicely for this as well. You can reverse the colors of land and water for better perception. It will accept the MapSource CD's as any other mapping unit would. One note, the 76 is optimized for a somewhat angled up display as if it were mounted on a dash or instrument panel, the E-Trex series is designed to be held more level. This will effect the receptions to a small degree. The 76s has elevation and glide ratio charts and logging for what that is worth. Kind of cool to see the elevation changes as your truck runs out of steam on that hill.

PDA???
 

One option I am looking into is buying the GPS for
my IPAQ PDA. You might consider something along
those lines if you have a PDA. I am just begining my
research on this option though so I don't have much
info on that yet.

http://www.pdamart.com/gpssystems.html

You can also find them for use if you have a laptop.


Jack

I picked up the Garmin GPSmap 76 around christmas last year and have used it on trips over land and water. The basemap is pretty detailed and has buoys and major roads. As has been said, you can buy additional CD's with more detailed info, like all streets, better water detail like depth contours, marina info, etc. The proximity alarm is great since we have a sand island that is about 6 inches under water now and a mile off the shore. It's very handy and is waterproof and floats. It has a marine mount and a plug-in hardwire power cord, so I run off the boat battery and can still take it off when we aren't on the boat. I got mine from boatfix.com - current price is $314.

Again, thanks for all the info. everyone is sharing. It helps using all of you to make a decision. I believe I may purchase the Garmin 76s. I have a friend who will get the same one as me, so that, we can split the cost of any software/map upgrades:D

Does anyone want to sell their 76s:confused:

Mike

Thanks Thrillseeker.

I'm pretty sure I can beat anyones price on the Garmin 176. I can also get the 76. If you want the 76, do you want the 1mb internal memory or 8mb internal memory unit?

Lake Racer,
I sent you an email.