I have a GPSMap 60Cx - that's the same model without the compass and altimeter. I don't miss them. The GPS gives approximate altitude and I don't see much personal benefit from adding an air-pressure estimate even if it is more accurate. As for the electronic compass, I reckon if you need a hand-held GPS then you also need a map and conventional compass as backup, in which case you don't really need another compass in the GPS. Especially not one that will fail if the GPS batteries go flat, and one that itself takes power causing them to go flat even sooner.

As I recall, it was quite a bit cheaper not to have those extra sensors. There's a temptation with survival gear to spend the maximum "just in case", but on this occasion consider carefully whether to put the money towards something else (like a PLB).

The colour display, on the other hand, is worth getting - the maps really work better with it. If you get one, check the Garmin website for software updates.

True and if you keep the compass turned off as I do, the batteries last longer.

Price seems low enough to mention - Costco has Brandon's model (without altimeter or electronic compass) Garmin GPSMAP™ 60Cx Handheld GPS for $219.99
Includes 64 MB MicroSD™ Card. You need to order it from their website.

http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.asp...g=en-US&s=1

The GPS60 is still the most accurate one even if it doesn't have the fanciest screen and such. I've started logging everything and if you zoom way in on maps you can see small errors from my legend HCx. http://www.everytrail.com/my_trips.php?user_id=76636

I'm now wishing that's the one I had, I'd buy it for $219 but would have to spend another $200 to duplicate the map licenses I have now.

I am lucky enough to own a Garmin 60CSx (with electronic compass and altimeter). From everything I've read, Garmin has simply not come up with another GPS as good overall as the 60 series (or the 76 series - they are VERY similar).

I went a few years feeling that people don't need the electronic compass on a GPS, but when I bought the 60CSx I splurged. After owning it for a few years I have to say that I'm glad I did. Now I strongly recommend the electronic compass. Its usually only about $15 more - or so.

Just last weekend I used the GPS and electronic compass to find a corner marker on some new property my wife & I just bought in northern Wisconsin. The place is some larger acreage and pretty rugged - with enough trees and brush that my wife & I couldn't see each other while searching for the property's corner. We just couldn't find it - even though the surveyor put a stake with an orange flag as a marker. I finally gave up, pulled out the survey and GPS 60, figured out the bearing and distance from a known corner post, inserted it into the GPS as a "projected waypoint", and then used the electronic compass to help me find the corner. I re-calibrated it first - to be sure - its easy enough to do quickly. Anyway, it lead me directly to the corner. We'd been looking in the wrong place. An amazing GPS!!!

We even saw bear scat as we were wandering around. Cool!

By the way, in my next life I think I'd like to be a land surveyor. Its a really cool skill and science, though surveyors have to walk through some pretty tough land. My surveyor said he got all cut up doing my new property - lots of wild raspberries & blackberries. George Washington was a land surveyor!! ... but he didn't have high accuracy GPS's.

Did you know that a bearing on a survey listed as N86* 35' 14"W is an azimuth - pointing 86 degrees, 35 minutes, 14 seconds from true north toward true west. Using a regular compass the bearing would be 360 - [86 + (35/60) + (14/60/60) ] or 273.41* (*=the degree symbol). If it had said S86* 35' 14"W it would mean it was 86+ degrees from true south toward true west. If it said N ... E it would be the number of degrees from true north toward true east. If you get the idea.

Ken

Have you looked at OpenStreetMap? No fees. Free maps. And if you notice an error or omission you can fix it yourself.

http://www.openstreetmap.org/

A

I use topo maps more often and so far all the free topos for my state just have small spots completed.

I see the prices have changed. When I bought mine, it was new. Even now I find websites claiming the list price is $428.56 versus $374.99 (over $50 more), and the difference was greater back then in the UK. But now they tend to be discounted down to virtually the same price.

A compass is certainly a good addition to a GPS, but it's arguably better to have it as an independent unit, for backup reasons, rather than integrated. But it's probably better still to have both: separate compass and integrated digital compass.

Okay, I need to break out the manual and figure out how to do that. Projected waypoints could be a very useful tool.

I still prefer a separate mag compass.

So was Daniel Boone, he was the first or second surveyor into most of Kentucky back in the day, and I believe he might have surveyed some land for either Geo Washington, Patrick Henry, or one or more of the Adamses. His surveying skills were about average for the time, his paperwork however left something to be desired, and alot of his surveys couldn't stand up to scrutiny back in the courts in civilization. But first and foremost, he was out there, risking his life surveying for hire, hunting and trapping among sometimes hostile Native Americans whose lands he was carving up for new tenants, so that alone made his surveying invaluable to new landholders.

ETSers, can we raise a cup to the original equipped to survive man, Daniel Boone!