Geocaching Australia

I've just picked up an Oregon 300 and am thinking of getting a copy of City Navigator 2009 and OzTopo. I'm not sure of how GPS units load/access maps, so I was wondering which version of Navigator I would be better of getting, the CD or SD version? Also, would I be better off loading one set of maps onto the internal memory (eg Navigator) and the other from SD. Thanks for your help.

I have an Etrex Legend and downloaded both Shonly Maps and OSM Australia Maps that are available for free.<p>I have both of these downloaded to my SD card and they work fine. The street maps (OSM) don't do voice guidance but that is because of my GPSr, I am not sure if they would on a GPSr that had the voice capability.

There are some pros and cons of both the CD and SD version of City Nav. With the CD version you can view/use the maps both on the PC and GPS. The SD card version you can only view/use them on the GPS. With the CD version the maps are locked to one GPS. If you want to use them with another Garmin GPS you have to buy a new key at the full price of City Nav. The SD card version the maps are locked to the SD card. This means you can use the card in other Garmin GPS's. The other problem with the SD card version is if something happens to the card then your up for the cost for a new City Nav version. You can copy the maps off the SD card for backup but you can't use them on another SD card.

Dooghan wrote:You can copy the maps off the SD card for backup but you can't use them on another SD card.

If you copy the SD card for backup, and then something happens to the SD card, then whats the use of the backup?

Fairly Magic wrote:

Dooghan wrote:You can copy the maps off the SD card for backup but you can't use them on another SD card.

If you copy the SD card for backup, and then something happens to the SD card, then whats the use of the backup?

That's exactly my point.

Hmm, thanks for that Dooghan. Having not used City Navigator yet, is there any benefit to having the capability of viewing maps on the computer? I doubt I would ever take my computer in the car to navigate somewhere, so it would only be for home use, and I'm not sure I would need to look the maps up at home. At this stage I'm probably leaning towards the SD version unless I find out that SDs are unreliable and problematic.

Just my opinion but with Mapsource loaded with City Navigator, Shonkey Maps and Blue chart I am able to plan routes on the computer, see quite accurately where caches are before I leave home and plan the order I want to do them.

bushandbeach wrote:Just my opinion but with Mapsource loaded with City Navigator, Shonkey Maps and Blue chart I am able to plan routes on the computer, see quite accurately where caches are before I leave home and plan the order I want to do them.

I have to agree with bushandbeach. Good for planning, creating and editing data before you leave home. Can be a bit hard on to do on the GPS. Easier to do it on a big screen, keyboard and mouse.

Also instead of buying City Nav and OzTopo you could buy TOPO Australia. Save yourself a couple hundred dollars getting TOPO Australia and get the same features and a few more. Here's the link to it http://forum.geocaching.com.au/viewtopic.php?t=11613. The word is it should be out by the end of the month.

I had a quick peek at Topo Australia today at a local retailer (they have 4 copies available on SD). From the looks of things it might be all I need, as you say Dooghan, as it has routable roads as well as the off-road topo details. The DVD version should be arriving next month, so I'll wait for that. Thanks for all your help.