Garmin:

•  eTrex Legend and Vista HCx - Small, affordable, color GPS
• 60CSx - Waterproof, great antenna, great outdoor viewing, color
• Oregon series - Touch Screen, tougher reading screen in bright sunlight, topo on some but nice unit.
• Nuvi: Less battery life but very good automotive GPS. Not waterproof accept 500 series. If mostly vehicle use, great option, affordable,color.

• H20 color: Affordable, compatible with many lake options, waterproof
• XOG: If you can find it, good crossover GPS, good automotive GPS, accepts most lake options, very affordable as being discontinued.
• Endura: Just came out, currently not compatible with any lake software and hard to find.

Geothermal,

Most will plug into a laptop but for uploading and downloading of waypoints not to view a bigger version of what is on your GPS screen.

Viewing NDTRAX:
If all you want to do is pull up the map and look at it on the PC, I do have a Garmin MapSource version which shows an overview map in MapSource (not as detailed as it is a preview) and you can download trails, tracks and upload etc. Using this version, a hunter can also send the NDTRAX map along with City Navigator and other Garmin maps to a data card to be uploaded together.

Real-Time Viewing:
3 programs I know of that interface with GPS units are MapSource, OziExplorer, or Fugawi. All 3 of these programs can interface with a Garmin GPS and show progress realtime but the program needs to have and be able to understand the GPS map. I already have a MapSource version and many years ago made OziExplorer maps which do what you are asking about. Although I have never attempted to use NDTRAX for realtime navigation, it should be theoretically possible using MapSource as long as your Garmin supports real-time tracking. It was referred to as NMEA in the past. The only downside is I have all my maps broken up into 4 segments or more. For instance for ND it is:

NDTRAX - Land
NDTRAX - Road
NDTRAX - Detail
NDTRAX - Water

I believe you would be able to see your progress against any of these 4 individual maps but do not believe you would see the combined map set.  I have not used this feature in a very long time. When I get caught up on a few other projects, I can do some testing on this. PM me if you are interested in the RealTime connection of Garmin - PC. If you are just looking to view the map on the PC, buy NDTRAX Garmin MapSource and then use this lto oad NDTRAX to a memory card to insert into your GPS.

Most people opt for the simple approach of having me put the map on a card.

Garmin GPS 76CSX floats!

I have NDTRAX right now in my H20,  how do i get land ownership to show up.  Do you actually have names of private land ownership on the screen??

dieseldog Said:

I have NDTRAX right now in my H20,  how do i get land ownership to show up.  Do you actually have names of private land ownership on the screen??

Ownership Parcel Names (Ownership of each parcel - 3 areas to choose West, Central and East) =16.3 MB

Not sure how I missed this thread as I watch the different forums pretty closely.

DieselDog: The actual name of the land owner only shows up on the Montana (MTTRAX) version which you indicate you have. 

All you need to do is zoom in on a parcel of land and about about .3 mile zoom the parcel boundaries show up and the owner's name will be right in the center. If it is not showing up, my guess is you have a Lowrance GPS. If so, go into your categories, and turn on the Category that says "Other POIs" and they should appear. If this isn't it, give me a call 701-261-9017.

For ND, MN, and WY, this type of ownership data is not available in the format I need to add it in mass for the entire state. However, for ND, there are a few counties who have the data and I do plan to add those for NDTRAX 2010.

For ND, MN, and WY, instead of being able to show the owner of private land, if you have a version produced after August, as you zoom in again to about .3 miles depending on your detail setting, every section line will appear, and in the center of the section of land, there is an 8 digit number. For instance it might look like 15706410. The first 3 numbers are the Township (157), the next 3 are the range (064) and the last is the section number (10). With this information, you can cross-reference this with a county PLAT and find out who owns the land. This was a highly requested feature and a reason it was added still in the 2009 instead of waiting until 2010.

Rooster22: No it will not work in a Bushnell Onix. Every GPS has their own unique format and the biggest markets for outdoor GPS units are Garmin and Lowrance at this time. If this changes, I will look into other GPS units. I support Garmin and Lowrance and you can see more about the specific models at www.koutdoorproducts.com

BackWater: Actually, Mapsource also has NMEA capabilities to track the user real-time as well. As you mentioned, I do have a NDTRAX - MapSource version but for many reasons the ND map up into 7 layers. There are tremendous benefits to doing this but the negative as Lycanthrope mentions is that you can only see one layer in MapSource at a time. Although some programs work well in MapSource, MapSource was not designed to be an advanced PC look up tool. It is designed mainly as a tool to transfer maps and data from and to the GPS.  I am looking at the possibility of adding PC compatability similar to what Lyncanthrope mentions as an add-on for next year, but this is still in a research phase. As I find out more, I will reply back to the forum. It would probably be called something like NDTRAX - PC.

Thanks for all the feedback.