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