Handheld GPS/Plotter - Suggestions?

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mph

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Hi all,
I'm thinking of upgrading soon to a handheld GPS/Plotter and wanted to get some suggestions from those in the know.
What chart format is best value, easiest to use etc.
I've heard good reports of the Garmin 76s or later csx, any comments?
Battery life is useful but I'd usually try to link it to the boat battery anyway.
Thanks in advance
 
Here is an appraisal I did for somewhere else.

Lowrance iFinder Expedition C plotter with Nautic Path chart.

I intended to buy the related iFinder H20C. Due to a mistake on the dealer’s part, they offered me the top model for the same price. The iFinder Expedition C is Lowrance’s top-of-the-range handheld colour plotter and includes many bells and whistles. This plotter is compatible with Navionics and Nautic Path charts. The deal I struck was with the Nautic Path chart bundled with the plotter. I will appraise them separately.

The Plotter.
The unit is powered by 2 x AA batteries. I use NiMH rechargeables. It accepts these quite readily but with these batteries the battery charge bar symbol never starts off showing full. If I compare with my Garmin gps12, I imagine it has the same life using half the battery power. 14hrs is claimed with quality normal batteries.

Switching on, the unit acquires its position within one minute even below at the chart table. This is something the gps12 could never do. This may be down to the 16 channel receiver. On a recent cruise where my two crew did the majority of helming and I lounged about at the navigation, giving occasional course adjustments, showed the effectiveness of the plotter used below.

The screen is ‘7.19cm’ diagonal. This means to you and I, roughly match box size. The zoom in-out control gives a reasonable view of the chart at whatever chosen view.

The visibility of the chart out of sunlight is excellent. In sunlight it is ok, although you may have to adjust your angle-of-view to screen to the best advantage.

The colours are magnificent. I imagine only the limitations of the chart software hold it back. As you travel about you leave a ‘trail’. This can be examined later before deletion, kept as a stored trail, or retraced if desired.

The instruction booklet is simple to follow. I referred to it frequently at first and it guided in fixing my preferred settings, and then on to making waypoints. (This instruction book then is in stark contrast to it’s cousin, the H20C booklet, which is said to be a howler. One kind UK owner has created his own version and it is available f.o.c. on the internet)

M.O.B. feature functions well. Waypoints (1000 stored). Routes and reversible routes are all you would desire.

One of the bells/whistles is a barometer (and weather forecaster). The barometer takes readings hourly and presents them in a bar chart graphic of up to the previous 23 hours plus the present reading. Here you cannot fail to see the all important pressure trend. I think this is wonderful. The forecaster is only good enough to predict steady pressure as ok, rising as good, and falling as, Watch it!

I tested the plotter for accuracy by walking along the pier to the end. On high zoom my position on screen couldn’t have been more than a couple of meters adrift. That, for me, is more than satisfactory.

The unit is 2yr guaranteed and is claimed to survive a dunking.

The Nautic Path Chart.
Ps. The Lowrance was bought to supplement an ageing on-board Furuno with now obsolete Navionics charts.

The area covered is large. It includes all of UK and the near Continent. All marks and lighthouses have extra information available form the ‘find’ button. I like how well the sectors of lights show up on screen. Leading lines are drawn in. Shore landmarks are ‘active’ and extra info can be found.

Once you zoom out these details cleverly disappear to avoid clutter. Occasionally you come across a C in a blue box. Click in this and it will reveal speed/direction of current in real time. In other places you see a T in a blue box. When the curser passes over, it changes to a tide height gauge. An arrow tells you if tide is rising or falling. Much more tide detail is available if required. Go in further to find times of highs and low waters at that place. Also a sine-wave diagram of the tidal flows for that day can be seen. A vertical line progresses across the screen showing exactly where you are at the time of viewing. If the date is set to some time in the future the tide details for that time and place will be revealed.

Depth contours are well marked up to the 5m line. Shallower than that and detail is sparse. All the way up to the HW mark detail remains poor. My local river details are scant. Even the marina is omitted.

My old Navionics chart, in contrast, shows much shallow water detail. I presume Nautic Path can save money, and offer a cut-price chart that is perfectly adequate for coasting yotties by this means.
 
I used a GPS72 for years, but recently changed to a 76Cx (I think.. It's the one with the separate SD card, but not the compass or barometer).

I liked the intuitive simplicity of the GPS72, and naiively thought the 76 would be the same - it's not, but once you've found your way around it, it's OK. Some things (like setting a waypoint with the map pointer) are downright obscure, and I needed to Read The Instructions :O (Shock horror). Screen is clear, but smaller than the 72, and set back from the front panel which (I think) looks a bit odd to start with.

The charts are great (IMHO) - Scillies to Oban for a bit over £100. You can get tidal data out of the PC programme, but not out of the 76 (as far as I can tell...), and if you have another Garmin plotter you can use the charts on that, too. (I don't).

I wanted a small GPS that I could stick in my pocket to refer to in the cockpit, and take anywhere. The GPS76 with the charts is superb for that - I look on the electronic charts as being a bit of a bonus. Battery life was important to me, so I didn't want the compass or barometer, both of which are power hungry. Current Garmin brochures quote the same battery life for all 76xxx models, but the previous literature quoted ~double the battery life for the plain vanilla version. I believe this to be the case - mine will do two full days on a pair of fully charged 1800mah NiMH AA cells. (Oh, yes, that's the other reason I bought one - I can stick some AA cells in from the stock in the grab-bag if it all goes T-U).

Depending on how portable you want, I would take a long look at the Garmins with the rechargeable internal batteries (276C?) which have a bigger screen, but are still portable, if not exactly hand held.

Andy
 
Garmin76 with chart, great.
connect to laptop with 'bluechart' installed
plan your voyage, and upload route & weypoints
I dont bother uploading the chart itself, the screen is just too small, and the free 'basemap' is adequate if you have already eyeballed the real chart.

afterwards you can download your actual track back onto the chart.
Its shocking to see how bad you are at helming,
and tacking! what a waste of time!
 
I got myself a GPSMAP 60CSX a while ago and really like it. I've got the Bluechart charts on it. You can pick these up for £270 new now from Field & Trek, but you will need to buy Bluechart as an extra.

A couple of high capacity NiMh AA rechargables will run it for around 18 hours, so if you have a couple of sets of batts pre-charged and a charger onboard, you don't need to worry about plugging it in really - and this makes it very versatile for wandering about with.

Has a built in barometer and electronic compass also - though the compass is fairly useless.
 
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