New to GPS

[reggoh]

First Posts always make you go 

Anyway here goes.

I am an avid hunter and fisherman and I recently purchased a Garmin GPSMAP 62s.  I was advised by doing a little reading online that the 62st wasnt worth the extra coin because you can download topo maps online for free so I opted for the 62s.

I purchased the Birdseye software from Garmin and I have been using the Basecamp to load these aerial photos onto my GPS unit.  Im just a little in the dark with some of the lingo used on the forums here and where I should start.

I obviously want to overlay my topo maps over my aerial photos... Do I need to look for transparent maps only or will my GPS do this on its own?

It seems that there are several options for uploading these maps to the GPS with regards to software choice.  What is the easiest to use for these topo maps?

I also want to learn about uploading some .pdf files for public hunting areas... it would be nice to overlay these on my GPS as well.  Any help on this type of upload sofware would be helpful.

Maybe just an overall of the basics would help me.

Thanks!

Reggie

[Boyd]

Any kind of traditional Garmin map will overlay on your BirdsEye imagery. No need for transparency, that's just the way it works. Lines and points will appear on top of BirdsEye (roads, contour lines, streams, cities) but polygons will not (lakes, parks, etc).

You can use either BaseCamp or Mapsource to load maps on the PC, or Roadtrip/Basecamp on the Mac. End result is the same.

[reggoh]

Ok... I downloaded a Louisiana Topo map to my computer... when i run the file it saves to my C:Program Files/Louisiana Topo.  If I open my Basecamp this map should be available to load in the drop down menu like the tutorial says?

[maps4gps]

Correct. 

[reggoh]

Got it!!  Thanks! 

[reggoh]

More Questions...

Using Basecamp to download the Birdseye images... Is there a way to Sync my GPS to my Work and Home computers so I can see what I've downloaded on each?  I've been working on some areas at home and thought I might get a little more done while im working but I dont know where I left off.  If I just guess where I left off are there any adverse affects by overwriting or working off of 2 machines?

Thanks,