All of the new side imaging units are now combo units as the GPS works with the bottom machine to plot the bottom. A friend of mine bought one of the 997's when it came out a few years back, and with the new updates they just released it is AWESOME he said. I really wish I would have bought the HUMMINBIRD instead of my FURUNO after using the 2 machines and seeing how much more definition the HUMMINBIRD had over the same structure. The best way to describe the new HUMMINBIRD stuff is to say it's like having an underwater camera hooked up for you to see. The definition is that nice.

Yup roger that....I only posted the first one I could find to show the unit I was talking about...this guy seems to be the heavy hitter on ebay as far as these units go....final selling costs seem to average between 750-900.

http://cgi.ebay.com/HUMMINBIRD-798c-...efaultDomain_0

My boat has the RayMarine sounder on it and it is very nice, I am like MJ ( wow did I really say that) I like separate units. So I need a dedicated GPS chartplotter. I have heard great things about Standard Horizon radios and the day light viewing of their GPS's. I especially like a 7 inch screen. I also like the customer service of Standard from what I read on the other sites, plus I like it when a company stands behind their product with a three year warranty.
Was hoping someone had used one of these new units which I understand updated the navigation, use issues from before.

Personally, I like my Uniden Oceanus DSC radio. It's basically trouble free and I like the fact that in an emergency it not only transmits my help message but it automatically transmits my position using my GPS that's hooked to it. I know that many people will have many opinions as to what is or isn't the best radio. I'm not talking about what's the best, just what has served me well for 2-3 years without so much as a hic-up. In fact, there is really only one thing I don't like about it, and that's the fact that you cannot remove the mike from the unit, and I find the placement of the cord on the side a bit of a hassle. It would have been much better feeding straight out from the front. Ahh well, I guess you cannot have everything.

MJ, yes, I know that the units are GPS combo. My Lowrance M56 is also a combo unit, I just don't bother with the sonar side of it most times. I have the depth displayed, and have a depth alarm set, but I have it set so the screen is showing me just GPS data. I use my Sitex for fishing.

I hear where your coming from....I usually dont like laying out one big chunk of cash on an item. Its probably why I've waited so long (and still waiting) The way I am looking at this though is that currently I have almost literally no electronics on the boat...no chartplotter and an early 90's fish finders. So the need is there for sure...I'm sure I'd be happy buying a fishfinder and chartplotter for a couple hundred bucks a piece and they would be fine...the way I'm looking at this I need to come up with $300 or so EXTRA dollars to get what I really want.