The wife is ordering me a Garmin 76S for Christmas/Anniversary/Birthday. Does the 76S come with a removable memory card? Where is the cheapest place to buy accessories? Software?

Any other ideas or suggestions or comments?

Garmin.com

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theres only two kinds. Good ole big'ems. And big ole good ems.

If you want a memory card GPS that will
take Navionics fresh water mapping consider
an iFinder Pro by Lowrance. $175 shipped.
I really like mine.

The Garmin is limited to 24 megs of on-board
memory, so no "chip switching" versatility like the iFinder. Garmin does have HotSpots freshwater fishing CD which you can download freshwater lakes from. The lakes are Navionics derived. BUT - Their lake selection is limited. The Lowrance iFinder will accept the zone 7 Navionics card for Texas which has a lot more lakes. Check out these websites for more info.
http://www.lowrance.com/outdoor/Products/ifinderpro.asp
http://www.navionics.com/HotMaps/Default.asp

dxr

[This message has been edited by doctorxring (edited 12-29-2003).]

Right on the button, dxr. If you want to stay with Garmin, you'll have to upgrade to the 176 or 176C to get memory expandablilty. Wait until January to get the Navionics chip for zone 7: they're doubling the number of lakes on next year's release for the same price ($129.00 at BPS).

jignpig --

The new HotMaps are out now. Online Marine
has them for $119. I just ordered area 7
Gold version the other day. You are right,
they have a lot more lakes this year for
Texas. Something interesting that I noticed on Lowrance's website is that they
have begun developing a product called
"Enhanced Lake Maps". I hope that they
expand this product rapidly. It looks good.
Included is a link that will take you to
it.
http://www.onlinemarine.com/cgi-local/So...bmd5348ff503750

http://www.lowrance.com/mapping/LakeMaps/index.asp

best, dxr

Believe it or not Garmin is NOT the cheapest place to buy Garmin GPS accessories. BPS has them beat by a mile....I ordered a 12V cigarette lighter adapter and a marine mounting bracket from BPS for my GPS 72 for like $50 and Garmin wanted close to $60...check out BPS first and compare to the Garmin prices.

Thanks guys for the information. Keep it coming.

Hey RBF, I have a Garmin 76S, I don't use it now because I have a combination fishfinder/GPS. But I started with the 76S and Garmin has the best software. You can get everything at BPS. You really don't need a memory card anyway, the 76S has plenty of memory. Just load all your different lakes with their respective data into your computer, then when you need it just upload the lake you need to your 76S and your ready to go. It'll probably hold more than that but hey, you can only fish one lake at a time! You can download your new data from your GPS back to your computer when you get home. The software works great and it only takes a couple minutes to do. I use a Lowrance X15MT and I like it, but I wish the software was as easy to handle as Garmin's. 76S is a good unit!

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RR,

Thanks for the positive feedback on the 76S. Why aren't there more Texas lakes available for Garmin? Don't you imagine more will be added soon?

GPSDiscount.com has been my go to guy. Good people to deal with and great prices. No,,,,,I dont work there!
DG

Man if its the emap76s take it. It's a good one. I did a little homework and you need to kiss the wife for being so sharp!

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theres only two kinds. Good ole big'ems. And big ole good ems.

The wifey poo is pretty sharp. I can't wait to get it in my hands and try it out.

I use the 76S and couldn't be happier. It comes with 24 mb but does not take a memory card. It also comes with a base map installed but I have installed the metroplex maps and all the reasonably local lakes, Ray Bob, Fork, Cedar Creek and a few others. Unit works great. You can order an external antenna (27db gain) off of E-bay for $17.95. I have one antenna on the boat and one on the truck. Best place to buy the unit is GPSdiscount.com but right now there are some on Ebay, new in box for about $100 cheaper.