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For a handheld Garmin it's a no brainer. eTrex Vista HCx. You should be able to pick one up for $220 plus delivery. To expand a bit. There is no point at all getting a new handheld garmin if it doesn't have a hi sensitivity chip and the only non mapping one that has the hi sensitivity chip is the basic yellow etrex H, but this is a complete pain in the butt to use due to the extremely bad method of inputting data and the ridiculously limited space for names. You should only get it if you absolutely cannot afford more than $100, and your peace of mind is worth nothing. However if you want something more user friendly then you have to move up to a mapping gps and you should get one over the basic yellow etrex even if you will never ever use mapping if only for the ease of use. Having said that although it is not vital, it is very very useful to have a compass on your unit. The cheapest one to go is the Summit HCx BUT you should still get the Vista HCx if only because of almost double battery life, which makes a big difference.

Perhaps I am misunderstanding the features, but I thought Legend still had the altimeter, just not the barometric one. Is the gps-based altimeter (if, indeed, it has one) considered inferior or unreliable? I don't know if the Legend has a gps Altimeter. By altimeter I mean a graphic window that displays the elevation plot. Obviously any gps can give gps based altitude. BUT, even if the legend had an Altimeter window and used GPS altitude, it would not work. the reason is that the gps altitude can jump around all over the place in the same way that a position reading can bounce. A unit with an internal baro altimeter does not bounce around. Sure it needs to be calibrated, and sure it will change if the baro pressure changes but pressure does not jump around it gradually increases or decreases smoothly. So with the internal baro altimeter it will give a smooth continuous plot and this plot once calibrated will be accurate within a few feet.

Hi I was wondering if the tools that come with the Mapsource Worldmap perform the same function as the Trip and Waypoint Manager that shipped with my HCx. Or is there other stuff that the trip and waypoint manager does?

Great, thanks for that info. I'm on a Mac and it's a real pain in the butt if I had to reload it because it means a trip to the local library to use their PC's in order to upload it.

I've got an HCx loaded with the Worldmap. I'll be getting another HCx soon and I was wondering if I can put the micro SD card containing the Worldmap into the other HCx seeing as it's unlocked. Is this possible or will it still recognise the unit ID and not load. Seems like it would be but I thought I'd check first.

Yep, the Venture is the model I recommend as the beginners model because it has the click stick and the model without the click stick is a massive pain in the butt to use. This is the best non mapping eTrex. All the new H models have will be as good as each other regards the new sesitivity.

I updated my HCx to 2.30 because I'm a bit of a risk-taker/thrill seeker-like-to-live-on-the-pointy-end-of-life type of person, and I did get a glimpse of the dreaded calibrate warning once. But I've yet to see it again. I've changed the batteries a few times but no sign of it reappearing.

Yeah $220 is about as good as you'll get. You definitely will not be disappointed with the signal that is for certain. I was using my new Vista HCx on my motorbike yesterday. I just had it around my neck on the lanyard and I was astounded that I could still hear it beep when a turn was coming up! even though my bike is quite noisy (that's my own made route not an auto route). I found it very handy to have around my neck and just have a bit of a look when I needed it rather than have it mounted on the bike. But if you have a fully faired bike it may be different. After all is is meant to be a hand held unit and as such it works better at a distance of about 14 inches. I also like that I could keep an eye on the speedo while I was looking at it because the etrex can register speed very accurately. In Australia the Metroguide does not do autorouting only the City Navigator does. But this might be different elsewhere. I'm only guessing but I can't see that a topo map will have all the back streets on it that you would want, otherwise the normal street maps would be redundant.

LATEST UPDATE: RECUT SHIELD OK I just received my new shield by express post. I opened it up and felt a little sick when I saw that it said Vista Cx on the front. However I could see by the shape of the bottom corners that it was a recut so I felt better then. I had a close look at it and then I measured it. It is indeed recut but ... but... First the good news. The length has been reduced so that it fits nicely top and bottom. However a quick measurement and I can confirm that it is still TOO WIDE. I would advise against ordering or installing your replacement shield unless you have access to a professional trimmer. This stuff if very very difficult to cut and I'm afraid that anything less than a professional trimmer with a good blade is not going to be able to trim off the millimeter on each side that still needs to come off. BUMMER. There was no point in trying the new shield because it's pretty clear it won't fit and it will be all same problem with fingerprints and crap. Basically it needs to be installed corrrectly the first time if you want it to look good. OK I whipped my top quality Rotatrim that cost me AUD$400 a couple of years ago and has been lying idle waiting for it's moment of glory. And here it was. The blade is very very sharp and it also presses down with a flat area as it cuts to stop movement. Using this I was able to trim the required amount off very cleanly. It's about a 95% perfect trim job. I do not recommend you try to cut it with an exacto knife and metal rule. It won't work because the rubbery nature of the Shield will grip the blade and bend. Even with the Rotatrim you can still see a bit on the offcut where it hasn't cut perfectly. With the new shield now trimmed correctly I attempted to install it. Let me say that this is the first time that I have put one of these on that wasn't too big and the difference is amazing. Instead of this interminable sliding around I was able to put it on in one go with minimal movement. The result is very very good. The edges are almost invisible. This is how it should be. Unfortunately It still needed a bit more off the top corners. But I can live with that. TO SUM UP •OK Shieldzone have got it wrong again. • Don't bother trying to trim it yourself, unless you have a *really good* quality double rail trimmer. Double rail is very important because it won't tolerate any movement. A cheap trimmer won't work. • If you do decide to trim it, it needs about 1mm off each side and a bit extra off the top corners. Actually on second thought the missing extra that needed trimming off the corner *may* be due to the Shield 'squirming' a bit right at the end. It' difficult to tell exactly. I will write to Shieldzone and let them know it's not right and post their response.

Nimnifnof, I feel better now. Yeah, that's the map I used when I went yesterday and got stuck twice in dead end streets. Google maps is not that crash hot. I then checked whereis.com that came up with this more accurate map. And this is the company (Sensis) that Garmin uses to make their maps for Australia, so I was expecting the same level of accuracy as they already have on their database.

No. But there is an option to "Change Reference" but that entails scrolling the whole world to put my pointer there which freezes up the display, and even if you do set a new reference it just displays cities near the point, a search still only looks at the basemap. I suppose the Worldmap is very close to useless anyway. I've just put it back on eBay and got what I paid for it so it's not big deal but I am surprised. I just wanted something to play with till the new Metroguide comes out ;¬)

OK I think I've got it sorted. I found the Basemap and Worldmap listed in the map section and when I turned off the Basemap all the cities disappeared. But I still don't understand how come that all the cities on the Mapsource Worldmap do not show up on the internal city database. Is this how it is supposed to be?

After getting caught in a road that ended yesterday I thought I might drop $300 on City Navigator Australia, but when I checked the sample on Garmin's website, it showed a through road even though a free online mapping program showed the road ending. (see photo) I'd be pretty annoyed if I spent $300 on full mapping only to find myself getting stuck in dead ends that are already published. Note this is not a recent closure or anything. It would seem that the rest of the road has never been built. Is this just an unlucky anomaly or am I expecting too much from City Navigator? btw, Sensis, who make this map for Garmin are an Australian organisation.

I installed the Worldmap on my new VistaHCx (had to do it at the local library because I'm on a Mac) and everything looks good, however when I go to search for a city it only shows US cities in the list, although I can see them loaded on the Vista. Is it that Worldmap does not allow a city search and I'm actually searching the US basemap or is there something that I'm missing here?

Go to the map page and press the left menu button to bring up the map set up option, then select the flag icon along the top, once you're there you will see the "User Waypoints" option and that's where you set the zoom level at which the caches show up.

So how do you know what your actual altitude is You have to look it up on a topo map or some other reliable source. On the Garmin Vista HCx does it have both the GPS and the barometric altitude? Yes, all the Vista and Summit models both b/w and colour. What are the advanages of the barometric vs. GPS altimeter, and vice versa? As far as I can tell the advantage of the baro is that it is more accurate and consistent over short periods of time, unless there is some major barometric changes taking place. So that if you are walking over undulating ground you can view a pretty accurate profile. But it's more just for fun rather than any real use, at least for me anyway.

@ Alphawolf The battery is a complete non issue. My old Vista (b/w) got about 10 hours usage with intermittent battery use. The new Vista gets the *full* advertised 25 hours (I checked it) using the compass *full time*. That's enough to tell you that battery drain is minimal with it on all the time. So... if you were really worried about even the tiny amount of drain caused by full time usage then one could just turn it on when you wanted it which is not that often anyway. It's just a press of a button, far more convenient when you already have the gps in your hand. And if it was used this way, ie, just turning it on when you wanted it then the battery drain would be impossible to measure. It is a total non issue and to pretend to your students that it really is an issue is disingenuous at best. Once you realise how little battery drain is actually caused by using your HCx compass I'm certain that you will use it anyway. Why not just admit that your justified fears about the battery drain, (which I myself had until I checked it) are unfounded.

You can get everything you want (except for voice) no worries for under $250. The chip is probably better than the SirfStarIII

Monkeybrad, you might find the clip in this thread interesting.

@ Alphawolf Right then, <rolls up sleeves>... First of all I'd like to point out that you have somewhat shot yourself in the foot by admitting you got the hcx because of it's better resale value, because that was going to be on my list of reasons to get it. Regarding the 5% battery drain, compared to my old b/w Vista which only would give me about 10 hours use with slight use of the compass, the new Vista HCx gives me the full 25 hours with the compass on full time. So I can believe the low drain The only "advantage" you have said one gets from not using a fg compass is that the batteries might last a tiny bit longer but who in their right mind would go out somewhere where they really need their gps and take the battery level right down to the wire? And you called the compass "useless" but it isn't useless or else you wouldn't use a compass at all, would you not agree?

My advice for the best budget gps would be to buy a second hand eTrex Venture from eBay for about $60 -$70. You should be able to get one in mint condition pretty easily. This is a basic gps without mapping. It's better than the basic yellow garmin which is rubbish because of the incredibly difficult unuserfriendly method of naming waypoints that you mark in the field. It has the hi res screen and 'click stick'.

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It's a bug that's been fixed with a firmware update. I think. Download the web updater.

@SergZak That's excellent news. It's been a long battle for me but I'm happy to know it was all worth it in the end. I was mocked and hounded off the Australian geocaching forum for bringing up this topic (amongst others) in order to get some support. However it might be prudent to wait before reordering if anyone has a badly fitting shield until I confirm that it's all fixed up. I'm expecting delivery in about 4 days and I'll report back to confirm it's all good.

UPDATE From Shieldzone. I am having this new shield shipped out to you via USPS Global Express, so you should have it fairly quickly. As for the forum, please let those people with ill fitting shields that we are more than happy to provide replacements (with no charges) if their shield does not fit correctly! I'll report back here in a few days when it arrives. Meanwhile Freeday you may want to make them aware of the similar problem with the 60CSx, pm me and I will send you the email address of the person you need to contact.