[briank]

I've loaded the V2 maps onto an eTrex Vista C which came with the Atlantic Recreational Basemap installed. The maps are wonderful in inland locations but I'm experiencing some problems using the maps 'as is' around the coast.

The Irish coastline on the basemap is very poor, it's composed of straight lines which can stretch for several kilometres in places. The problem I'm experiencing when the V2 maps are overlaid on this seems to be based around their transparency.

When I load the V2 maps over the basemap the following happens to the coastline -
Areas that were represented as land on the basemap but as sea on the V2 maps are correctly represented as sea.
Areas that were represented as sea on the basemap but as land on the V2 maps are incorrectly represented as sea.

This leads to strange effects in some places such as contours extending a few hundred metres into the sea. If I turn off the basemap then I see the coastline correctly, but the land is shown with an awful cross-hatched effect (to indicate a transparent map with nothing under it?) which makes it more or less unreadable.

I imported one of the V2 maps into GPSMapEdit and changed it to be non-transparent before exporting it back to the receiver. This worked fine, and the correct V2 coastline is now shown although of course none of the basemap detail is visible any longer.

I'm wondering is there any way to see the correct coastline and still see the basemap detail, or is it a tradeoff where I must decide to have one or the other?

[Wildlifewriter]

Welcome Brian.

I don't know of any setting that you could alter on your VistaC, which would modify this.

As you've already worked out for yourself, the source of the "problem" is the very "approximate" basemap, as supplied by Garmin. Yes, this can be switched off, but it cannot be changed.

The solution, of course, is to get some better-quality road mapping for your unit. As well as more detail (street-level mapping of Dublin, for example) this has a much more accurate coastline.

The obvious (though expensive) choice is Garmin's City Navigator Europe, which works well with V2 Contours. However, this product is still not showing all minor roads in Eire at this version. We expect that next year's effort (Version 9?) will be greatly improved in this respect.

-Wlw

[briank]

Thanks for that feedback.

I mainly use the unit for hillwalking purposes, so I wouldn't get enough value out of City Navigator Europe to justify the purchase price.

I think I'll use the V2 maps for inland locations, and make modified non-transparent versions of them if I'm walking in coastal areas. The basemap detail that will get hidden in that scenario isn't very extensive anyway.

Thanks again.

Brian.

[tackmack]