diff -ruN gpsbabel-1.3.6_orig/garmin.c gpsbabel-1.3.6/garmin.c
--- gpsbabel-1.3.6_orig/garmin.c	2008-11-03 05:45:37.000000000 +1000
+++ gpsbabel-1.3.6/garmin.c	2010-01-23 20:38:01.000000000 +1000
@@ -45,6 +45,7 @@
 static char *snwhiteopt = NULL;
 static char *deficon = NULL;
 static char *category = NULL;
+static char *encoding = NULL;
 static char *categorybitsopt = NULL;
 static int categorybits;
 static int receiver_must_upper = 1;
@@ -71,6 +72,8 @@
 		NULL, ARGTYPE_BOOL, ARG_NOMINMAX},
 	{ "category", &category, "Category number to use for written waypoints", 
 		NULL, ARGTYPE_INT, "1", "16"},
+    { "encoding", &encoding, "Override auto-detected encoding", 
+        NULL, ARGTYPE_STRING, ARG_NOMINMAX},
 	{ "bitscategory", &categorybitsopt, "Bitmap of categories", 
 		NULL, ARGTYPE_INT, "1", "65535"},
 	ARG_TERMINATOR
@@ -226,6 +229,16 @@
 	}
 
 	}
+
+    /*
+     * Encoding override
+     */
+    if (encoding) {
+        receiver_charset = encoding;
+        if (global_opts.debug_level > 0)
+            fprintf(stderr, "Encoding overrided to \"%s\"\n",
+                receiver_charset);
+    }
 	/*
 	 * If the user provided a short_length, override the calculated value.
 	 */