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I have Mapsource 6.16.3 (WIN XP SP3). Is there a way to display two maps simultaneously in Mapsource. I thought at one time I had done that - may have been earlier version or different sequence of installation (a couple of HD crashes or corruption requiting reinstallation of everything).
Pretty sure I did at some point as I remember sometimes it got a bit confusing, but also useful as one map is missing roads in some counties, that exist in the other, also the overlapping of 50' contour lines w/ 20' ones was sometimes useful.

I have an etrex Vista HCx (I think the latest firmware) & seems I can with that.

The two .gpx files are named by date (year, month, day).
Within a .gpx log file, the active logs are given the time (hr, min, sec?) the log began.  Every time you turn on the GPSr during a day, a new active log is initiated with that days .gpx file.

I believe your unit is using local time (as does my 76csx).  My OR300 seems to use universal time, so there is a 7 hour time difference on that unit; just to make this not straight foreward.

I was wondering how those files were named. However, once I started the test, I did not turn the unit off, so the two large entries at least were from one instance of having the unit on. As I can't get any satellites under the metal roof of the house, I turn the satellites off inside so it wouldn't be tracking anything in the house and tracking was off after I did the two segments of the test.

It is normal for the saved track to be much smaller.

And as seldom said the active track is for the entire day.  the 20100308.gpx is the entire active log for the 8th of March

When I save the track log to SD chip, does it get the name I give it?
No, not in the SD chip. There's a track log by that name that appears to be only stored in memory of etrex

If I look at the SD chip in card reader there's a file 20100308.gpx, which when I open in mapsource it has 3 "files/entries" - ACTIVE LOG154016 - 1 point, ACTIVE LOG154016 001 - 16 pts, ACTIVE LOG154034 - 1322 pts (all have same date) [I was trying to simplify things in original post]. My test at home was done on 3/8/10 & that's all I did that day.

So I did another test today.
test today: turn on etrex vista HCx, after it's gotten sattelites, goto tracks > setup, clear ACTIVE LOG, turn on track logging, get avg'd waypoint, walk around for a bit, save track log, move it a bit, take another avg'd waypoint, walk around a bit with it, save another track log , turn off track logging, clear ACTIVE LOG, turn off gpsr.
bring it inside to computer, turn on, transfer everything, goto setup > interface > connect
I now have 2 track logs w/ 33 & 21 points respectively
If I look at SD chip  I now have 2 files in SD chip - 20100308.gpx & 20100309.gpx. Open 20100309.gpx in mapsource & I have following entries listed under tracks tab:
ACTIVE LOG135026 - 612 pts
ACTIVE LOG140115 - 21 pts
ACTIVE LOG140140 - 822 pts
ACTIVE LOG141609 - 5 pts

So it looks to me as tho the two larger entries correspond, roughly, to the 2 saved track logs, where the first shows where I walked down to stream & the other not; and the 2 smaller entries were bits of logging while I was saving, turn off logging etc. Aside from walk to stream, both logs were done in same area so it's not provable that the 2 longer entries are related perfectly or imperfectly to the 2 track logs, or what the 21 pt entry is.

On recent trip I had turned on track log, created averaged waypoints at 2 nearby locations & couldn't save log as I had 20 logs already, turned off logging & the etrex vista HCx. Came home, copied everything over to home computer, then deleted a couple old tracks. I then saved the current log & deleted the active log & again transferred everything to computer.
The 'saved' track log had far fewer points than the active log of the same period of time.

So, I tried a test at home in my back yard, doing much the same thing, turn on GPSr, after it got satellites, clear track log, turn on logging, walk around a bit, get 2 averaged waypoints fairly nearby, turned off logging, saved track log, came inside & connected to computer & transferred data to mapsource - this time not deleting the active log. The active log contains 1322 points & saved log has 28.

I noticed after looking at <http://forums.gpsfiledepot.com/index.php/topic,674.0.html> that the saved log had leg time leg speed & time stripped. I gather from that link that reduced points in saved track log is normal???
I had it set at 'record method' Time, every second.

Is there some setting to make it save all the points in saved logs as in active log?

I now see a file on the SD chip 20100308.gpx that opened in mapsource has 1322 points & looks like the active log --- or is that the saved track log but with all the points? It has name of 'ACTIVE LOG154034'
(I don't think I had it logging to data card on the first track)

thanks for explanation about county data. I selected segments from both mapsets in Mapsource for the same area & loaded onto chip & they seem to display together without any great problem.

Now if I go to 'set up map' & I, I see a whole slew (~25) of one map series (I guess one for each square), followed by a bunch from the other map series. Is there any way to combine the different segments of each mapset, so it's easier to turn one whole series of map segments (mapset?) on or off at once?
Did I do something wrong in selecting the map (squares) in mapsource that made them all separate maps in the etrex?

Sure wish I'd discovered this site a couple years ago!

Thanks

I have Mapsource 6.15.11 & downloaded 'Northeast Topo United States Part 1 of 3' Map & installed so I see it in Mapsource. However, some roads appear to end in the middle of nowhere, e.g. I-91 stops just N of Rt 302 & Rt 302 stops E of S. Ryegate. It appears that they stop at the Orange Caledonia (counties) line.
1) Am I doing something wrong? I have traveled both those roads so I know they don't stop where the map says.
In a little more examinations, I see NO roads in Caledonia, though there are towns, churches, cemeteries, etc.
I've played around w/ amount of detail that's displayed, but that doesn't affect the absence of roads in Caledonia.

There's an up dated New England map at http://www.gameandfishnetwork.com/NE-topo-map.html which I had downloaded & has the roads complete, but topo lines are at 50ft intervals rather than the 20 ft. of the map from gpsfiledepot.
2) is there any way to merge these two maps so I can see the roads in Caledonia & the 20' contour lines at the same time?? Or maybe just roads in Caledonia??

3) I put part of the map from gameandfishnetwork on etrex vista HCx & zoomed out all the little streams displayed so fat that I couldn't see much else. Is there a way to turn off stream display?

Any suggestions on any of these is appreciated.

I've never had an issue upgrading the firmware on any of my units so I wouldn't worry too much; just make sure you have batteries in it so it doesn't lose power.

Seems power is supplied by USB, if I lose power on the computer I'd expect it would be bad news, but I'll keep those batteries in & charged.

And yes, that map will work on your Vista HCX.

Woopie! Do you know if that map contains roads as well? This may be dumb question, but can I switch between basic map & the topo map I have on microSD?

It will display tracks and waypoints on top of the map.
I sure have been missing a lot w/ this unit.

No clue on the altitude except that the Hcx uses a barometer for the altitude...

I thought GPS provided altitude info. I can't figure out from manual how barometer interacts w/ GPS altitude info, but barometric pressure generally changes far more slowly than the estimated position (& I assume altitude) garnered from satellites, but see there's a fixed elevation option, so I'll try the average noaverage comparison again w/ fixed.

if you really want to test test at a benchmark; the topo maps won't give you as accurate as an elevatino as you might think.

Not clear what you're saying - that the printed topo maps from USGS are not accurate as to altitude? If not how do I get accurate altitude info to calibrate barometer? Can't use pressure because as far as I know any weather station publishing current barometric pressure would be at considerable distance from me & different altitude.

This site is really great! Wish I'd discovered it 2 years ago. Lots of studying to do.

I have a Garmin etrex vista HCx, currently no microSD card, so basic map. Found here the topo maps for New England and seriously considering a microSD & getting that map. Am I correct in thinking that the map here <http://www.gpsfiledepot.com/maps/view/103/> will work on my vista HCx?? or am I missing something? If they do, will it display tracks & waypoints on the topo map like it does on the (quite bare) base map that came with unit? I'm unclear on where things are stored if one has a microSD chip installed. Without looking I think one can tell it where to store track or waypoints - would that affect if those are displayed on the topo map?

On different issue, Garmin site says that if upload of later version of firmware fails the unit might have to be returned to Garmin for repair. Believe I'm several versions from current and would like to update to use larger microSD chip. Anyone have any problems updating the firmware on this device?

On yet another issue: if I mark a waypoint at a particular spot & then do another immediately at the same spot but have it average, the averaged waypoint has the altitude way off - fairly consistently. And the unaveraged waypoint seems closer to reality when I compare to printed topo map of same area than the averaged one. Any clues or thoughts??

Thanks for any help.