Messages

I just wanted to say "thanks" to maps4gps and -Oz-.  I took their advice and couldn't be happier.  I mean, I could, but realistically this was the right way to do things.

Thanks a ton, you folks were very helpful.

-bb

I've been trying to answer the following question for about a day now:

"I spent $300 on a Garmin GPSmap 60CSx.  I like it a lot.  Now, what are my choices for adding detailed North American road maps, topographical land data, and more detailed waterway data to it?"

I am proficient with Windows, MacOS, Linux, MapSource, USB, CD-ROMs, Autoplay, etc. (during the day I'm a satellite design engineer), so I know how to actually go about adding maps to the unit.  What I would like to know are, what kinds of choices are out there?

On Garmin's site, I see that three choices are "MapSource WorldMap", "City Navigator", various "Topo US 24k"s, "Topo US 100k"s, "US Inland Lakes", "LakeMaster", and something called "BlueChart" on Garmin SD Data Cards.  I'm reading their descriptions, and they mostly make sense -- though they seem ridiculously over-priced.  I heard there used to be something called "MetroGuide", but that it's no longer being maintained?

On this site, I've found the "IbycusUSA" package and various state-wide topographic maps (Arizona, California, etc.)  These all seem to be free (as in beer) to download (with the option to donate), and free (as in speech) to modify.

So here are my questions, in no particular order, and thanks in advance for any help you folks can provide:

1) Other than the packages listed above, are there any other worthy alternatives out there?  Do other companies like Magellan or National Geographic or government entities like the USGS or *anybody* offer "Garmin GPSMap 60CSx-compatible" maps with different pro's/con's and/or different pricing?

2) Does the IbycusUSA package still lack routing capability and address data?  I will be frequently routing to addresses, so this would be a deal-breaker for me (not to trivialize the immense amount of work that clearly went into producing it).

3) Do any of the non-Garmin topographic packages contain bathymetric data for lakes or other non-ocean bodies of water?

4) If you had a fresh-out-of-the-box 60CSx and were planning to camp and hike and drive around in California and Montana, and a couple hundred dollars of budget, what would you personally choose and why?  I don't mind sending money to individual developers instead of to Garmin if their products are of good quality, but conversely I don't mind sending money to Garmin if that's the only way to get high-quality results.

5) Finally, there was a recent announcement about the free availability of detailed worldwide 30m topographic data through the TERRA/ASTER GDEM.  I tried to download that dataset from NASA, but online access to those data has been disabled.  Any word on whether or when this ASTER data will be "compiled" (?) into Garmin-compatible topographic overlays?  Obviously I'm new to the process of generating Garmin-compatible map sets.