I was fortunate enough at Christmas to receive a Garmin Map GPS 76C. Also, our boat account showed a plus balance. So we decided to ditch the ancient, sometimes working VHF radio and buy a new one. I believe that boat sellers automatically remove their good radios and replace it with the oldest, shabbiest VHF they can find. So it happened with us in 2000, when we acquired ALURE. We bought a Icom 402 and I installed it last weekend. This radio model will accept the GPS info to display on the screen and even let Coast Gaurd know of emergency, if you can hook it up and register it correctly. Everything went fine, except for connecting the Garmin to the Icom. It was NOT easy. Even though we bought the right four pin serial port adapter cable, the wires were not ready for quick install. This is what I discovered: Instructions for both companies are vague. The Garmin factory rep at the 1-800 number said (re 4 conductor cable) red was hot, check. black is ground, yep. white is 'in' and brown is 'out'. "Let the white wire float", he said. So I connected the ground wire to complete the circuit. Think: brown must be the one to connect, as the info signal is 'out' of the The Icom input is an RCA plug, with picture saying center conductor is +, shield is -. But juice flows from negaive to positive, right? God bless (and I mean that reverently) the guys at West Marine in Hampton, VA. A fellow there and I tried every combination possible, with his Garmin and his Icom. We got it right, eventually. Then the next step was selecting the right Garmin menu choice. Finally, we got it: white wire must be connected to outer conductor of Icom RCA plug. After a while I got it right, even being able to program our old Garmin 42 to talk to the Icom, without a book! Whew! It was worth it. Joe