KayakVagabond

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My Garmin GPS doesn’t show the name of any islands!?

Posted by Greg on January 25, 2022

Q: Hi Greg, I have a new GPSMap78 GPS and it is not showing the names of any islands. I have contacted Garmin Support and they are telling me that I need a TOPO map or additional maps.  Please help!

A:  I have seen some late Garmin GPS units using Bluecharts come configured by default, where oddly, you do not see the names of any islands. For example, you will see the the details and outline of islands on your screen but you will have no clue what they are named. I’ve had a few people ask me about this.

As you say, calls to Garmin Support often result in incorrect information that you need to load additional maps, topo maps, that Bluechart doesn’t support, etc.

Oddly my older Garmin GPSMap units don’t have this issue. Fortunately this is an easy configuration change to fix:

Go to the map screen. Click on Menu -> Setup Map -> Advanced Map Setup -> Text Size ( on some Garmin productions this will show as Menu -> Map Setup -> Advanced Setup -> Text Size ).

Map Points needs to be changed from None. I choose “Small”.

If the names show at some zoom levels but not others, experiment with the Zoom Levels   (Setup Map -> Advanced Map Setup -> Zoom Levels) for Map Points in the Setup Map menu (e.g. set to 20ft).

You should now see the place names when you look at your chart!

Greg

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