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New GPS, cheapskate owner

Started by gila_dog, August 01, 2010, 06:57:05 AM

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gila_dog

I just bought a Garmin eTrex HC Venture. Now I need 24K map software for New Mexico. I have read some reviews about Garmin's Mapsource software and it seems that it lacks BLM and State land, and there are other complaints. The $100 or so that it costs, and having these shortcomings, make me hesitant to buy it. Is there another 24K software package that I can buy, or get for free, that will work with my GPS? I need to run it on a PC with Windows XP and download maps to my GPS via USB.

Boyd

Try some of the New Mexico maps on this site, they are free: http://www.gpsfiledepot.com/maps/state/nm

The problem with your "cheapskate" GPS is that it has very limited internal memory for map storage (only 24 MB). This means that you will only be able to load a relatively small area of the map. Most of the maps on this site include installers for Mapsource. You can select as large an area as will fit your memory and send it to the GPS. When visiting a different area, you will need to load the map for it. This can get tiresome after awhile, but I suppose it depends on how large an area you usually visit and how much of the map will fit.

Units that have removable memory cards offer a lot more flexibility. You could then have 4 GIGABYTES of map storage as opposed to only 24 MEGABYTES. Are you able to return or exchange the Venture HC? If so, you might consider it as I think you'll get frustrated and want to upgrade after awhile anyway.

gila_dog

Thanks for the info. I downloaded and installed all the software that you recommended, and lo and behold, it worked! I am a happy camper now.

It turns out that the 24 MB of memory in my GPS is plenty big enough for the maps that I need. I downloaded the maps for the area that I spend about 90% of my time in, and it took about 16 MB. That covers almost all of the Gila National Forest (probably bigger than Massachussets). I'm sure that the fact that there are no towns of any size in the area is a factor.

Now I need to get out and learn how to use this thing. One thing I've done so far that has been very nice is to sit at my computer, look at maps, mark waypoints for trail heads and other important places, and download them into my GPS.

So far so good. Thanks for making all this software available and for providing tutorials on how to use it. I will make a donation to the guys who put TOPO New Mexico together.

MichaelJ07

I have a Venture HC and use it every year for deer hunting.  Works great for me for what I do.

Enjoy yours!

Mike
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