GPS/Chart plotter

[jim rosenthal]

I have a NorthStar 6000i. It is very good, but if you are thinking about the RADAR option, I'd keep looking. NorthStar's RADAR got lousy reviews in the late lamented Powerboat Reports. If you want RADAR, get a RayMarine or a Furuno.

I haven't seen Garmin's RADAR. Any good?

You might also look at Simrad. Their stuff is quite good, but tends to be expensive. The NorthStar is fine for navigation and their sonar is good, but that's it, from all the reviews.

[Nick]

I have the Raymarine C-120 multi function GPS/ radar and soon the depthfinder. This is my second season with it, it is easy to use and I like the large screen. I have a 4KW radome and it is adequate for navigation. I had a 4kw raytheon with an open array antenna prior to the present unit and the target discrimination is not quite as good now. The advantage of the single unit is the radar and chart overlay. The disadvantage is if the unit goes down all goes out, although Ive heard that its not usually the problem. I do have my L600 Furuno color finder and back up 6 inch Horizon GPS as backups.

[Lucky Dog]

Garmin, Garmin, Garmin.

[Capt K]

Garmin, Garmin, Garmin.

Yeah yeah, yeah! And redundency, redundency redundency!!


K

[dougl33]

I have Garmin 182C and a Raymarine C120 with the RD218 2kw radome and the Raystar 125 gps antenna. I love the huge screen of the C120, the radar is fantastic, and the clarity of the Navionics Gold chart is great on the 12 inch screen. However, the chartplotter functionality is no where as easy to use as the Garmin. If I had to have one stand alone GPS, I would go with Garmin. If I were going with a multi function unit I'd go with Raymarine as I do not think Garmin's radar is as robust as Raymarine's (yet).

[hcalmar]

I purchased and installed yesterday, the Garmin GPSMAP 2010C 10" color for $799 on Ebay with the 1yr factory warranty, NY to Cape Cod canal preprogrammed chart from WM for $129( they matched Defender's price) and for less than 1k I think it is a lot of chart, tides, fast draw ect. I jyust saw a different company advertising it for $756 but I had a friend who had previously bought a 2010C fron "radios for you" and I had a comfort level.It is all I need and alot better than my old Raymarine and Garmin 210.FWIW
Hal