Garmin micro SD cards Questions

[Pamlicotraveler]

I have a Garmin 76Csx...I use this as a backup to our chartplotter. When I bought it a couple of years ago I bought one of the micro SD cards for the East Coast south of New Jersey which covers our area for our normal sailing in NC and Chesapeake...Garmin XUS601X . I had forgotten that I had paid $375 for the microSD card I have. WOW - It was before the recession I guess, but that's alot.

I am going North this summer to Rhode Island, Long Island etc and need to find the chart for North of what I have. Do I have to switch in and out these tiny little cards when I cross the area North of my existing chart? It looks like the areas north are divided up into small sections and it would very expensive to buy them all. I have looked at the Garmin site and it is really confusing. Am I correct that the unit itself has no memory built in, so my SD card would have to be taken out and the new one put in?

My question is what I need to do and what makes economic sense. Is someone here familiar with the micro SD cards that can help save me a bunch of research time? I need Atlantic up to Rhode Island...maybe Massachusetts.

Also...Doesn't the new Colorado handheld come preloaded with BlueChart coastal charts.

[sailingdog]

PamlicoTraveler-

If you have a large enough MicroSD card, you can actually store all the charts you'd need on a single card. However, you generally will have to buy and unlock the charts you need off of a BlueChart CD/DVD. Unfortunately, with the pricing scheme of the BlueChart regions, you could probably buy a Colorado 400c or GPSMAP 478 unit, that has all the charts pre-loaded.

[gtod25]

This gps has no internal memory, it relies on the original 128 microSD card, which I'm sure you have put somewhere safe. Each regular chart area takes up about 12-14MB of space.

You are right about changing out the microSD chips, I have already broken one. The problem is that the larger area you need (Maine through Chesapeake, Jan 08 (US600X) - 010-C0060-00) is only supplied on micro SD.

If you want the charts on CD (which is my preference) you are back to the regular format and you are looking at three possibly four charts ($150 +$100 x3). This makes no sense. With either option you are looking at $400+ for charts. The main benefit of the CD is that you can do all your planning on your PC. If your main GPS is also a Garmin this can be useful for planning purposes.

I would pass on the charts and just plot a number of emergency waypoints and keep a paper chart handy.

[Pamlicotraveler]

It's kind of wacky isn't it?

I guess Garmin is using the razor/razor-blade economic model - give away the razor and sell the blades for a bunch.

If the Colorado at around $500 has the charts preloaded ("Colorado 400c is your coastal companion, providing chart coverage for the coastal U.S. and Bahamas"), why would I spend several hundred more dollars to get the teeny little card with the charts I need for my unit?

Anybody want to buy my "like new" 76Csx for a fair price? geez....

[sailingdog]

Unfortunately, the pricing structure for electronic charts is somewhat whacked... and I don't see it changing anytime soon.