Comments about GPSMAP 78sc Marine Handheld GPS Receiver with Compass and Barometer:

I use this GPS primarily for Geocaching. I have not used Marine GPS units, and this may come in handy if I do. I like the screen readibility. Also the antenna is quad helix which give a strong signal. Goood price and value. My wish list for this GPS is Glonass satellite capability.

Comments about GPSMAP 78sc Marine Handheld GPS Receiver with Compass and Barometer:

I sail and race on the San Francisco Bay and in the near coastal ocean. I take the GPSMap 78sc with me on every sail and I use it to track my boat's course and speed. I download GPS data to Home Port on my Mac and export the data to a GPX file that becomes part of my electronic logbook. I use this when on the water to get a bearing to a mark especially if the ship doesn't have a GPS. The chart plotter seems to work well although the screen is so small that you have to do a lot of gymnastics with the zoom to see what you want to see. Given that the screen is small, that is understandable. The unit has a very sensitive GPS receiver that works very well below decks and in my sailing bag. I recently purchased the power/data cable so that I can connect this unit to instrument systems on boats that don't have GPS but can accept NMEA GPS input. Very nice feature of the unit! Garmin support is also top notch as is their cartography.

Comments about GPSMAP 78sc Marine Handheld GPS Receiver with Compass and Barometer:

When my local West Marine put the 78SC on sale, I jumped on it. I also bought a set of 2300mah NiMh batteries as well (I read some complaints about battery life, so I bought the highest mah batteries that I could find - make sure you read the label, the battery capacity varies widely. Just because there is a cute animal pictured on the box does not mean they are the highest capacity batteries available).

I put in the batteries, powered it up, and started playing with it (I got around to reading the manual a couple of days later). I set it up for marine navigation and customized the screens to my liking (for example, I reordered the data display to first show SOG then VMG and moved the tile showing elapsed time to the bottom. I also set up the barometer and watched a front move through our area - very neat, and useful if you are out cruising. It seems like there is no end on how you can personalize the displays. Just keep tweaking until you like it.

I then took it out for one of our local "around the bouy" races. I found it easy to use on the course and easy to see. The backlight is dimmable, great at night, and it was still easy to read. I have not been cruising with it yet, so I can't say much about the features such as - anchor drag alarm, alarm clock, etc.

After a full day of playing with it- programming, experimenting, bouy racing, etc. the batteries finally gave out. Although it was a little short of the 20 hours (more like 18+) I was not disappointed. I had it on all day, programming and paging through the pages constantly - using it interactively much more than I would normally.

The WM salesman said I could charge the unit using the supplied USB cord -WRONG. I think Garmin missed the mark here. Almost everything is charged through the USB cable these days. Having to remove he batteries to charge them is an unnecessary pain.

I have not purchased the "Birds Eye View" maps, but if we start cruising more I might.

That said, I am very happy with this unit. I knocked off one star because of the USB charging.

PS: One interesting accessory available is a wireless heart rate monitor. That might be nice to have at a port-starboard crossing, or a "room at the mark" event.

Comments about GPSMAP 78sc Marine Handheld GPS Receiver with Compass and Barometer:

Fast reception with many functions

Comments about GPSMAP 78sc Marine Handheld GPS Receiver with Compass and Barometer:

I am moving from a gpsmap 76 which from a field users point of view was far superior for my uses. The chart rendering ability of this unit is impressive, but the sheer volume of features makes it difficult to transition to. The lack of a tidal calculator is a bummer for me. Did not do my research well.

Comments about GPSMAP 78sc Marine Handheld GPS Receiver with Compass and Barometer:

The 78sc is a step down from previous Garmin handhelds as far as features. Examples cannot filter speed, rounte info is very limited (when displaying the waypoints in the route, distance between legs is not shown, only the name of the waypoint in the route, not able to advance a waypoint in a route and not able to restart XT while following a route. Heading cannot be filtered. With heading and speed not able to be filtered both are very erratic. Support is lacking with techs not familiar with the unit and not willing to pass feedback to the idea people within Garmin. This is not a professional piece of equipment.

Comments about GPSMAP 78sc Marine Handheld GPS Receiver with Compass and Barometer:

I have two earlier Garmin GPS models and wanted to upgrade for a recent off-shore passage. I purchased this model based on the claims of all it can do. Maybe it can, but the manual is anything but helpful. I spent two hours on the phone with tech support at Garmin and they were helpful, but short of teaching a course on the set up and use of waypoints, routes and tracking, the current manual is useless. I reverted back to a Garmin 48 which is so easy to use. I will continue to work on setting this model up, but it shouldn't be this difficult. BTW, the Garmin tech people said they agreed and spend much of their time trying to instruct people how to use this model because of the poorly written manual.

Comments about GPSMAP 78sc Marine Handheld GPS Receiver with Compass and Barometer:

best

Comments about GPSMAP 78sc Marine Handheld GPS Receiver with Compass and Barometer:

this is the second one that has died due to splashing. IPX7 is supposed to be "Protected against water immersion - Immersion for 30 minutes at a depth of 1 meter."

Good unit considering the charts that come with it but be sure to get a waterproof case. I just wish there was trugh in advertising

Comments about GPSMAP 78sc Marine Handheld GPS Receiver with Compass and Barometer:

I would trust the unit only for fair weather day sailing. Night, fog, or way point use is limited. Compared to my Uniden Mystic handheld of 10 years ago; this unit has color and slightly larger display. Out of the box, the Marine Profile is non-nautical. Defaults are vague, land oriented. The coastal charts are lacking detail, especially depth. There is not a dedicated lat/lon screen needed in emergencies. Lat/Lon eats up map display space. A screen to navigate to a way point is missing. Mounting it more that arm length is useless. Vertical tilting compass swings it 10 deg - dangerous as a hand bearing compass. Documentation is spotty. Non-intuitive setup but better than expected. Naively thought both land maps and charts were part of the package. Going to return it for an older model. It just doesn't have the bang for buck I was expecting.