Garmin 76Cx Handheld Clearance ?

[Neo]

Hi, just purchased the Garmin 76Cx hand held with color mapping from West Marine at half price. ($170, normally $350). Is there an issue with this GPS unit that I should have known about? It has the SiRF receiver which I beleive is the better of the various receivers that Garmin uses. I was looking to purchase a low end GPS unit without mapping but this model was the same price.

[MarkJ]

I have one and its good.
Its a little of a pain to plug into the computer using a serial port so I just use the usb system which wont then let you use it as NMEA (I think)

But its a fine unit.

We use it for all our land travel too Just find the leaning tower of Piza on Google Earth and plug the Lat&Lon into the Garmin and go follow a route!

No bastard taxi driver can take you the 'tourist route' when you have a hand held GPS!

$170 is a great price. In Australia they are well over $600

[zydecotoad]

I just bought one. For about $150 you can get a single chip for the entire US coast.

[Maine Sail]

I bought one last week. Too good a deal to pass up. At that time there were none left in the WM warehouse and there were only a scattering amount of them left in the various stores. I got the last one for my local store.. Also bought the US Chart chip for less than $140.00.... Not a bad deal for slightly over 3 boat nickels...

[JiffyLube]

I got one a few years ago when it was selling for over $400.00, and it's been a good unit. I've downloaded free updates through Garmin a couple of times, and upgraded the maps once for a price. It works good with my laptop and Coastal Explorer nav software, but it does eat batteries if left on all the time with a bright screen. You can eliminate the battery problem by using a 12 volt adapter, and plugging into the boats 12 volt system.

[Neo]

Thanks for the feedback. It should arrive this week. Can't wait to play with my new toy!

[Martigre]

Just got mine on sale at WM as well and love it. Didn't love the cost of the charts for the Aegean, so found the chip used on ebay for less than 1/2 the price. Great unit, and with the anchor drag alarm feature (tested today and works like a charm) I'll sleep much more soundly when I'm not on watch.