GPS with Marine Chart / Bathymetric?

[longimanus]

I'm tempted to purchase a Garmin handhled GPS device to which you can upload Marine charts. Then, once on a dive site, you can mark its location, view the surrounding coastlines, harbors, even depths and bathymetric information. Reason I'm debating is the extremely high costs for those charts and maps.

Does anyone own a GPS handhled device for scuba purposes and is kind enough to discuss products, pitfalls and experience?

Thanks!

 

[boydski]

Does anyone own a GPS handhled device for scuba purposes and is kind enough to discuss products, pitfalls and experience?
Thanks!

I have the Meridian version with local maps uploaded, and find it extremely useful for locating dive sites with my boat. I usually do not take it when shore diving or diving off of charter boats though, so I'm not sure how useful it would be if you don't have a boat.

YMMV

 

[ChrisA]

I'm tempted to purchase a Garmin handhled GPS device to which you can upload Marine charts. Then, once on a dive site, you can mark its location, view the surrounding coastlines, harbors, even depths and bathymetric information. Reason I'm debating is the extremely high costs for those charts and maps.
Thanks!

The display is so hard to read on a hand held. Almost usless really. Buy the paper charts. You can get a bound set of charts for your area for maybe $30. Then get the Garmin etrax handheld for about $99. The combination is much more usfull and less expensive. Plus you can right notes on the paper charts in pencil. the $99 GPS will let you mark spots and give them short names and tell you distance and bearing to other points, everything you really need.

The bound sets or "chart packs" are printed at slightly reduced scale but are otherwise exact copys of the government charts

The electronic charts are not really expensive when compared to real, goverment printed paper charts. Full sixe paper charts are about $20 each while the electronic ones contain maybe 100 charts for a few hundred buck. which comes to about 10x cheaper. The trouble is that no one is hi right mind would navigate a boat without a set of paper charts aboard. That would be right up there with solo diving without an SPG.

 

[LB 1]

I'm tempted to purchase a Garmin handhled GPS device to which you can upload Marine charts. Then, once on a dive site, you can mark its location, view the surrounding coastlines, harbors, even depths and bathymetric information. Reason I'm debating is the extremely high costs for those charts and maps.

Does anyone own a GPS handhled device for scuba purposes and is kind enough to discuss products, pitfalls and experience?

Thanks!

I have both a hand held and a fixed mount GPS which I use every time I go out diving on my boat.Both units are linked thru their wiring which allows me to upload and download between the two I then take the hand held and download it into my PC using Garmin Mapsource this allows me to compare the co ordinates with those off of a bathymetric CD there by keeping track of dive sites already visited and possible new dive sites yet to be explored.I also save as waypoints any bottom anomolies I may see on my depth finder and compare those to the bathymetric charts and previously visited sites in the hope of finding new sites worthy of investigation. Any handheld Gps will allow you to do this all you need is the software and download cables.Hand held chart plotters tend to be too small to read easily especially on a rocking boat and much more expensive then a regular hand held GPS, all you really need is to know exactly where you are when you see something interesting.
LB