Joe Zorzin wrote:
Mike, which Magellan do you have, the Platinum? What are "tiger files"? I
think the only way I'm going to know which to buy is to buy both, then
return the lesser of the two.

How does inclement weather effect GPS?

--
Joe Zorzin

I've got the Platinum with a 64 MG flash card and the Topo cd. I'm only
using ~32 MG and fit nearly half the state of Washington in. That's a
lot of contour lines. With a software upgrade, you can back up routes to
the card. It's a fine gadget, though if it also contained a cell phone
and an espresso maker it'd also be cool.

TIGER files are an older GIS line file type that was used for the
nationwide scale census maps. They aren't as accurate as USGS DRG's and
occasionally do odd things such as drawing rivers running over hills and
roads. They seem to be in all the commercial map databases.

The most basic drawback of any recreational gps is that you can't input
your own base maps. The drawbacks of the Meridian are that batteries
only seem to last about 8 hours if it's on the whole time, there's no
"area" function (there is in most garmins), and the elevation reading is
a blend of actual and datum elevation. (not a bad thing if you have
varying barometric pressure)

The 76S is a better tool, but not that much better. There are ways to
get around the limitations of the meridian. When I download the tracks
into say, Mapmaker or Terrain tools, I can compute area and minor errors
in elevation are not a problem. The temptation is to ignore the
fuzziness of the actual data points.