GPS device with ability to display 1:25000 Ordnance Survey maps (or similar)

I'd live a GPS device that will display my position on a 1:25000
Ordnance Survey map or similar. I'm hoping to do away with purchasing
Ordnance Survey maps when out walking.

I've done a search of the Internet but I can't find such a device; I
can't believe it doesn't exist.

Ideally the device would have at least a 3" colour screen (measured
diagonally).

Can anybody help? And any recommendations as to a particular device
would be much appreciated.

I'm interested in the using the device in the UK countryside.

Thanks

Hi
I bought the Garmin 60CSX and the Map Source UK around 6 months ago. I've
used it quite a bit now for walking in the lakes etc. The maps (Map Source)
on it are good they are from the OS, you get contours, tracks, streams etc
all showing up on the colour display. You can plan routes on the computer
and upload to the GPS. It also doubles as a car GPS as the map source Uk
has street level and house number entry. I don't go any great distance in
the car without it. For me it's been well worth the money.

PM me if you have any other questions.
Hope it helps.
Don't do way with the map and compass though, they are a good backup.

Thanks very much for your reply.

Are the Mapsource UK maps as detailed as the 1:25000 Ordnance Survey
maps?

Thanks again

On Mon, 23 Oct 2006 23:27:30 +0000, zin92 wrote:


Fer a start, "MapSource" is the name for all Garmin's land mapping
products. Garmin's "Topo Great Britain v2" is your best choice - see for
yourself at

http://www.garmin.com/cartography/

choose a map from the MapSource Map Viewer selection, and it'll open a
window so you can pan & zoom around to see the detail (using the 'more'
Detail button and the 'L' size work best for me).


The mapping is nowhere near as good as the OS 1:25000, but much better
than Garmin's road mapping products (eg City Navigator) which have no info
off-road.

Memory Map provide (effectively) scans of the OS maps so are perfect for
you from that point of view, though personally (I use it with the CAA
charts) the program design is very poor.

Also if you're using it for walking, consider how rugged a PDA will be -
most Garmins are splashproof and (vaguely) resistant to shock.

A.

zin92 wrote...

IMHO the answer is total rubbish compared even with the 1:50000 and
completely unusable - but see for yourself using the Garmin previewer at
www.garmin.com/cartography. They appear to contain no detail whatsoever and
the logic of what is displayed at any given level of "detail" is a total
mystery to me. For example neither the town I live in - Malvern - nor any
of its roads (not even the A449) are visible at a scale of 5km - and even
Worcester is not labelled. My road doesn't appear until a scale of 500m but
then it's almost indistinguishable from minor contour lines. Only an
illogical selection of footpaths are included and when they appear they are
much more prominent than minor roads. Quarries on the Malvern Hills are
simply voids on the map - which is unfortunate since they have a nasty habit
of cutting straight across the lines of rides and footpaths.

For your stated needs you need some sort of handheld computer device along
with full resolution OS maps. I'm out of touch with the most up-to-date
versions (I have a very old version of Anquet maps on my laptop) but the
mapping companies using full OS products that I know of are Memory Map,
Anquet and Fugawi. Rather than simply scaling the individual OS maps these
products can use different scale OS products and switch between them as you
scale up and down, which gives you optimum detail at all scales. They all
also have 3D and aerial photo options built in.

At a recent bat workers fieldwork course the course tutor had all his
software on his mobile phone - GPS, Memory Map, Excel, radio-tracking
software etc. It was absolutely brilliant when out in the field
radio-tracking since all the details needed are immediately available in the
palm of your hand. I can't remember what the product was but it may well
have been a Blackberry or similar device.

David