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I own a Garmin GPSMAP-76. It’s the Black & White model (no color screen). I purchased this unit around 2002. To the best of my knowledge this unit was designed to be a marine unit because it is water-tight and it floats. At the time of purchase, I lived on an island in Southeast Alaska. I spent much time on the ocean and coupled with the fact that we received approximately 220 inches of yearly precipitation, the GPSMAP-76 was my unit of choice.
I bought the Garmin Blue Charts which worked simply great. I also bought Garmin’s MapSource Alaska & Hawwii Topo maps for my area as well as Garmin’s MapSource Road & Recreation maps. I needed these maps for land-navigation (hunting, camping, and wilderness travel). The Topo map and Road maps were grossly inaccurate for my area. The Topo map was often off by one half mile where as the street map frequently had the user somewhere in the ocean or high on the side of a mountain but never where you obviously were. I reported this to Garmin and they agreed that I was correct. I did not follow up to see if they corrected their problem as I would have to buy new maps to correct “my problem” that was created by Garmin.
There is/was NOTHING wrong with function of this unit. “Bread crumb trails” were/are repeatable and reliable. The “go-to” functions were/are on-the-money. It was Garmin’s MapSource land-based maps that proved to be problematic for seemingly all of Alaska. It’s worth repeating that Garmin’s Blue Charts were “spot on” and I trusted ocean navigation using these charts.
Approximately a year later (2003) I bought a series of CDs from iGage comprised of USGS topo maps for all of Alaska. Using iGage’s map-to-GPS computer interface program, I could repeatedly and reliably transfer “bread crumbs” from my GPS to their topo sheets and this transfer proved to be “spot on” which further confirmed that my receiver was working properly. Still, this in no way “cured” my *real time* problem of inaccurate maps and terribly wrong position reporting when using Garmin’s MapSource maps. Such an issue could prove deadly in Alaska because Alaska is unforgiving and She will kill you.
I have now reside in the Mat-Su/Anchorage area but I still have reason to frequent S.E. Alaska and need of accurate topo maps of the S.E area as well as all of Alaska.
The aforementioned brings me to the following:
1. I may be in the market for a newer model GPSMAP, e.g. MAP 78s.
2. I do not wish to waste money on a newer model GPS if Garmin’s maps and map-accuracy for Alaska have not improved Alaska.
3. Garmin is allegedly coming out with an “enhanced v.2” map of Alaska. Can this map program be used with the GPSMAP 76 model? My MAP-76 is WAAS-enabled. Is this enhanced version a Garmin product or a MapSource product?
4. Addendum: Whether this is accurate or not I have no idea but, I have just been informed that MapSource is a company unto itself and not a Garmin product. Apparently Garmin endorses MapSource products for use in their units. In the same breath, I was told that Garmin actually produces Garmin maps and I should try to purchase topo maps of Alaska that are produced by Garmin. Anyone with knowledge of this? Perhaps more questions to follow.
Harold
I bought the Garmin Blue Charts which worked simply great. I also bought Garmin’s MapSource Alaska & Hawwii Topo maps for my area as well as Garmin’s MapSource Road & Recreation maps. I needed these maps for land-navigation (hunting, camping, and wilderness travel). The Topo map and Road maps were grossly inaccurate for my area. The Topo map was often off by one half mile where as the street map frequently had the user somewhere in the ocean or high on the side of a mountain but never where you obviously were. I reported this to Garmin and they agreed that I was correct. I did not follow up to see if they corrected their problem as I would have to buy new maps to correct “my problem” that was created by Garmin.
There is/was NOTHING wrong with function of this unit. “Bread crumb trails” were/are repeatable and reliable. The “go-to” functions were/are on-the-money. It was Garmin’s MapSource land-based maps that proved to be problematic for seemingly all of Alaska. It’s worth repeating that Garmin’s Blue Charts were “spot on” and I trusted ocean navigation using these charts.
Approximately a year later (2003) I bought a series of CDs from iGage comprised of USGS topo maps for all of Alaska. Using iGage’s map-to-GPS computer interface program, I could repeatedly and reliably transfer “bread crumbs” from my GPS to their topo sheets and this transfer proved to be “spot on” which further confirmed that my receiver was working properly. Still, this in no way “cured” my *real time* problem of inaccurate maps and terribly wrong position reporting when using Garmin’s MapSource maps. Such an issue could prove deadly in Alaska because Alaska is unforgiving and She will kill you.
I have now reside in the Mat-Su/Anchorage area but I still have reason to frequent S.E. Alaska and need of accurate topo maps of the S.E area as well as all of Alaska.
The aforementioned brings me to the following:
1. I may be in the market for a newer model GPSMAP, e.g. MAP 78s.
2. I do not wish to waste money on a newer model GPS if Garmin’s maps and map-accuracy for Alaska have not improved Alaska.
3. Garmin is allegedly coming out with an “enhanced v.2” map of Alaska. Can this map program be used with the GPSMAP 76 model? My MAP-76 is WAAS-enabled. Is this enhanced version a Garmin product or a MapSource product?
4. Addendum: Whether this is accurate or not I have no idea but, I have just been informed that MapSource is a company unto itself and not a Garmin product. Apparently Garmin endorses MapSource products for use in their units. In the same breath, I was told that Garmin actually produces Garmin maps and I should try to purchase topo maps of Alaska that are produced by Garmin. Anyone with knowledge of this? Perhaps more questions to follow.
Harold
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