[pct-l] GPS - Garmen Vista

[Bill Burge]

Which Vista?

www.garmin.com does have info about the capabilities of the device

Being Mac probably doesn't matter, depending on the device.  I looked  
at a couple of the Vistas on the Garmin site and it looks like it uses  
SD cards.  That should make it easy to add maps by copying them to the  
card and installing the card.

OK, I looked again and the very BASE Vista does not have a card slot  
and only has 24meg of internal memory.  This device would not work if  
you were looking to add topo maps and waypoints and tracks.  You could  
add up to 1000 waypoints (maybe water and resupply) and try and make  
that work, but really, it's not the right tool.

Yes, you would have to buy the Garmin Mapsource maps.  With a 64Meg SD  
card (probably all it supports, you probably want the "100K" maps.   
While I like the "24K" maps (higher resolution) you might have to  
reload memory too often to make it convenient. (Still not sure how  
name maps you could fit in 64meg at 100K.)

Do not buy them on SD card.  The SD card is probably not available to  
have waypoints stored on it if it has the pre-recorded maps from  
Garmin.  Think "read only memory".  The tracks and waypoints from Half- 
mile (or where-ever) will need some space.

BillB



On Jan 26, 2010, at 10:21 AM, Erik Turnberg wrote:

> Question to all the GPS folks out there.  I have Garmin Vista which I
> use right now to just track where I've been on short hikes or
> occasionally locate myself on a map, but my wife (and primary hiking
> companion) and I are hoping ro make it a little more usefull and bring
> it on our thru hike this spring.  Should I buy the garmin maps?  If so
> which ones?  What way points should I use and what's the best way to
> upload them?  We're mac people.  And beyond this what do people think
> about carrying a gps.  Usefull or not?  We will be carrying the atlas
> and a compass, which we both know how to use.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Granite and terrapin flyer
>
> Sent from my iPhone
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