MikeSSS

My wife and I went over to Italy for a while, I wanted a GPS so we could know where we were and see a map of our location and places we wanted to go and places we had been. The HCx was small enough and light enough to carry in the pocket of a fishing shirt I wore for sun protection. It's screen was small but very easy to see in bright sunlight, in the shade and in the dark, there was never a problem seeing it. Battery life was excellent, just turn it on in the morning and off that night, the batteries were old Radio Shack NiMh's, the charger was a Powerex MH C204W. Italy uses 240V, Euro Plug adapters, the two prong ones worked everywhere, just plug it in since the C204 works on either European or American voltage. The only problem was when some water from drying shirts dripped into the charger and I had to wait for it to dry. This charger also charged 4 Powerex cells for the camera and two for another camera, it charges fast so you don't have to get up and change cells during the night. There was almost never a time when the HCx couldn't get a signal, on the plane, or anywhere on the ground. Inside it worked pretty well too. This GPSR got good locations and it was very easy to enter fixes along the way so we could later see on Google Earth where we had been. The speed and altitude and cabin altitude worked very well on the plane. I used Google Earth and Google Maps ahead of time to find the places we would be staying at and places we wanted to visit, entering them into the HCx was easy. I got the Europe chip for the map so it could be switched to another GPS if needed but it never was needed. Usefulness: On Capri I walked up to Villa Jovis, the biggest of Emperor Tiberas' twelve villas. The route is through very narrow, winding alley ways with lots of branches in the wrong direction. Without the HCx I would never have found it. In those days it was GOOD to be Emperor. Knowing where you are and where you have been is very valuable, worth far more than the price of the HCx and the maps. The bad things: There aren't many but here they are. If you don't use it a lot the menu system on the HCx is not very intuitive, it's far worse than that on our Nuvi. The frustration level can be extremely high when people are waiting for you to do something on the HCx, something you could do the night before but can't do now. Touch screen would be a lot better than the little joystick. The screen is small, too darned small but it's a fantastically good little screen. Now for the biggest problem of all, the HCx is useless for planning. On a Nuvi you can put it in simulator mode and set your location where you will be starting from and then check the distances and routes to where you will be going. I wasn't able to do this with the HCx. I asked how to do it on several sites before the trip and nobody knew how to do it. That last thing is huge, it would be a deal killer if there was any alternative to the HCx that I could afford, was waterproof and highly visable in sunlight. All things considered the HCx is a fantastic gizmo, it worked great. I tired using a Nuvi 200W on a test run walking in a city. The Nuvi has a great menu system but it never could acquire when walking and the battery life is so short you would have to turn it off and on a lot. Twenty minutes without ever acquiring ruled it out. So, it was the HCx or nothing and I'm sure glad I had it along. Apologies for typos and spelling.

No Mapsource on the computer, got the SD/microSC because it might be used in either of two GPSR's. Besides I need Goggle, Google Maps and Google Earth at the same time I'm entering waypoints. Tried entering all the Italy places we will visit on a nuvi 200W, that machine couldn't acquire when downtown. Entered all the waypoints (places) on the HCX and had the frustration of it going back to my home instead of staying in Rome where I was working. When I got them all in I tried to delete all the pizza and knife and fork symbols and ended up deleting all the waypoints. At this point I had around 20 hours work on this project. Started again on the HCX with no local points to clutter the machine. Put the cities in with leading AA's, example: AA Rome, AA Pisa, etc. That made getting back to where I needed to be much faster. Put the hotels in with HOT leading, HOT Ambas...., HOT Visc...., etc. That made finding the hotels a lot faster. Put in seven hills with Hill leading, Hill Palatine, etc. got it all in, it only took maybe 12 to 16 hours this time. Practice, doing this a lot, let me enter waypoints without being bounced out of the Italian locations very often. I did get bounced out when checking the waypoint list though. We will go downtown this weekend for a trial run with the HCX. Don't have the USA maps in the HCX but we will get by and will find out if the HCX works better surrounded by buildings. The HCX acquires fast while I'm sitting in front of the computer, downstairs in a two story home so it should do fine over there. Outside in bright sunlight the HCX's display is very readable without any backlight but the backlight does help when used. Sunglasses, the polarized kind, don't seem to cause a problem seeing the display. The real problem is trying not to flash your eyes with a Sun reflection. Battery life is fantastic on the HCX, we will have rechargables along but will probably just use alkalines, two sets should last the whole trip. The more I use the HCX the more I love it. PS, over there we will use paper maps for places like Pompei. The Europe NT map doesn't have detail inside Pompei but I did put in the major places with aid from Google Earth. The HCX will show us where we are compared to major places on the paper maps and that should be a big help. In Rome it will also let us know about places near where we are so we don't miss them. Pics: I'm planning to shoot three image, bracked exposure shots of the good stuff and use HDR software to gen HDR stills.

I'm setting waypoints in Italy but I'm at home in Texas. On a Nuvi 200W it's easy to "set location" while working on waypoints in Rome or some place where I'm not at the moment. I can't figure out how to do that with the Vista HCX, every time I push the wrong button (more likely than pushing the correct button) the GPSR jumps me back to where I am now. Then I have to go through the menu to select a waypoint near the area I'm working on and start again from there. Having to do this a hundred times in a couple hours of work is getting very frustrating. Any ideas how to "set location"? Thanks PS, I set everything up in the Nuvi 200W and then took it for a trial walkabout in San Antonio, it couldn't acquire when surrounded by buildings, it tried for maybe 10 minutes. Since it's battery life is perhaps an hour and the battery is built in it turned out to be useless for a city GPS. If it won't work in San Antonio it probably won't work in Rome, etc. Also the display isn't easily readable outside, not the thing when trying to avoid pickpockets and the like. The HCX is harder to program because of it's small screen and my farsighted eyes but I'm hoping it works as a city GPS when I take it for a walk.

Check WalMart for the Vista HCx. I got one from Wally World for $165 a couple weeks ago. WW had the lowest price by far. It came out to $185 delivered. So far the HCx is working great.

I have tried to find two caches ever, both with a Nuvi 200W. It found both or at least got me to within about 20 ft. If you use it in the "north is at the top" mode and orient the top of GPS, north, toward actual north then it will show you the direction to the cache even though it doesn't have a compas and arrow like a Vista HCx. Sure you can find caches with a Nuvi and it's great for use in the car.

The comparison was done about two months apart but there was quite a big difference. I found the cache with the Nuvi 200W by walking to cause the "distance to" to become minimum. With the HCx I just followed the arrow and then the "distance to". The Nuvi's "distance to" danced around between about 3 ft and 40 ft. The HCx's arrow took me to about 4 ft from the cache and it's "distance to" hovered between about 3 to 6 ft. This HCx is box stock, no firmware upgrades. Finding the cache using the HCx was far easier, almost too easy. OK, there is less leaf cover now than when I used the Nuvi maybe that helped the HCx some.

With $1.47 shipping and tax it came to $180.

This is for Italy. City Navigator NT Italy and Greece comes on a micro SD card, so does City Nav NT Europe. Are the micro SD maps locked to a particular GPSr or can you move them to another GPSr? Thanks

Thanks, that's just what I needed to know. Happy Trails

I might get a Vista HCx or 60 CSx. The maps I'm looking at are: City Navigator North America NT on DVD, City Navigator Europe NT Italy & Greece on DVD, TOPO U.S. 2008 on DVD Load a map from the DVD on to the home PC and then load it from the PC into the GPSr, right? Can I use a map on both the home PC and the GPSr? Can I load a map from the home PC on to two GPSr's or do I have to buy a map for each? The PC we are using now will be replaced pretty soon. What happens when I get the next PC? Can I load a DVD map that was used on the old PC on to the new PC or do I have to buy the maps again? Thanks

Found out how to check "Accuracy" on the 200 W. The birds it sees change around quite a bit and accuracy is about 20 to 25 ft outside right now and more like 30 to 35 ft inside the house. It sees a lot better inside, higher bars, if held so the back of the GPSr is toward the ceiling. It seems to see 6 to 8 birds inside on the bottom floor of our two floor home.

I use a Nuvi 200W, it is probably pretty much the same, so here goes: You saved the coordinates with some name, you can target them from the "Favorites" button. From the opening screen that has the "Where to?" and "View map" icons....... Touch "Where to?" Touch "Favorites" Touch the "name" of the cache you want (the coordinates should be displayed under the name) Touch "Go" The Nuvi will calculate a route to the cache, drive to the nearest parking place that's safe and start walking. Touch the map screen so that it goes into the looking-down mode where north is at the top. Point the top of the Nuvi towards the north, as you walk keep the top towards north and walk in the direction to the destination symbol. South is at the bottom of the screen, East on the right side, West on the left side and North at the top. If you keep the top of the GPSr pointing toward North then it acts as a compas. The Nuvi 200W doesn't have a compas but will act as one if done as described above. Use the + key to magnify the view as you get closer, remember this is in the top-down view mode. When the map shows you close to the target then Touch "Back" to get back to the slant-view or car pointing toward the top mode. Touch the "Arrival" time button at the bottom left, this takes you to the Odometer mode. In the Odometer mode there is a distance to the destination at the top right, this is in miles until you get below 0.10 miles (528 ft) and as you get closer it changes to feet. Move to make the distance get closer to zero. Here's the 'catch', the GPSr has some accuracy level, the Nuvi might take you to one spot and tell you are 6 ft away, then 12 ft, then 15 ft, then 3 ft......then it changes it's mind and takes you to another place maybe 35 ft away and does the same thing......then it changes it's mind and takes you to a third spot and it keeps on doing this. Agghhhhh. At this point the trick is to start looking for the place where you might hide something. Is there stuff leaning against the bottom of a tree? Look for places like that. Also straight or even lines are a give away. The cache probably won't be in a water runoff trace. Accuracy estimate, the Nuvi has this. Go back to the opening screen that has the "Where to?" and "View map" icons. In the top left there is a signal strength icon, the vertical bars like on a cell phone. Thouch this for about 4 or 5 seconds and then let go, a screen should open showing the satellites the GPSr sees and there should be an estimate of accuracy in the lower right. I don't use this, haven't remembered to use it. Take all this with a lot of grains of salt because it comes from a guy who has looked for two caches ever. (but I found em both) Happy Nuving

Thanks for the help. This is interesting stuff.

Found my second cache ever today and opened one for the first time. I used a Nuvi 200W made for car navagation, at first it took me right to the location but then started guiding me to nearby places, changing every minute or so. Forgot to check the "accuracy" screen. This was under the tree canopy. I haven't tried it in the open to see how that compares yet. Anybody know if tree cover degrades accuracy? Thanks

The 60 CSx seems the GPSR to buy, it will be for car use, walking in cities, cashing, kayaking and hiking. We have a Nuvi 200W but this be our first hand held. It looks like we will need City Navigator NT US, TOPO US, City Navigator NT Europe. Is that right? There seem to be two options, 1. get the maps on micro SD cards or 2. get the maps on DVD's, put them on the home computer and download them into the GPSR or the GPSR's micro SD card. Is this right and if so can the DVD maps be used on the home computer for planning? If I get DVD maps, will the three maps be able to fit on a 2 or 4 GB micro SD card or will multiple cards be needed? If three cards are needed can they be swapped back and forth in one GPSR without hassles? Are the cards plug in transferable from one GPSR to another without any hassles? Are some sort of unlocking codes needed to use the maps you buy? These are pretty elementary questions but I've got to get moving on this project. Thanks for your help.

Good information, thanks. We have a Nuvi 200W and it does "car" just fine. I was thinking 60CSx or Vista HCx or Nuvi 500 for walking in cities and doing some caching, kayaking, hiking and stuff like that. No attachment point for flotation is a deal killer as are the problems and features lacking for non car stuff. The 60CSx looks like a "problem free" GPSR but the Vista HCx fits in a pocket easier. The problems the HCx has are probably too much for me, no reason to have a toy that makes you mad. How would an Oregon be for city walking, hiking, cashing and car use compared to a 60CSx. I've read a few threads about this but don't remember what the conclusion was if any. Thanks

The Nuvi 500 and 550 look like they would be good for cacheing, walking, hiking, kayaking, walk touring big cities and for use in the car too. Is this true or do I have it wrong? Any idea what the diff. between them is and which is better for many applications.

Bass Pro has the Vista HCx on sale for $199.

Bass Pro has the Garmin Vista HCx for $200.

Sam's web site has them for $298, you have to pay tax but they do have a 90 day return policy IIRC.

A few days ago I tried finding a cache for the first time. The GPS was our Nuvi 200W and using the "distance to the favorite" function the 200W found the cache! That was great, very much fun. We used this Nuvi on a couple cross nation trips this past summer and it did very well in that use too. Now I'd like to get a hand held, the use will be caching, using the odometer function when I'm hiking around under the trees (I average about 1 mph in these rough rocky trails, I'm old, lame and hobble pretty slow) and it will be used in Rome and other places in Italy and in NYC when walking around. There are two other uses, it will be used in the car, if it would announce turns coming up verbally that would be most excellent, our Nuvi 200W doesn't do that. Easy zoom in and out is a huge plus too. With old guy eyes and cataracts forming a bright, easy to see display is very important to me. Waterproof is also important since it will be used in the kayak to anchor over places I will explore with the scuba and for finding the way around in mangrove swamps (bread crumb trail would be great for this). This GPS needs to have pretty good run time using disposable batteries. Size is important, smaller, lighter, pocketable is better for this GPS. It looks like the Vista HCX has a nice bright display and that it will receive well under the tree canopy and in building surrounded streets. Size seems to be good for pocketing too. IIRC it is water proof but also has odometer problems that firmware 2.8 might or might not fix. Then there is the drifting location problem that some report, not the short range distance to target jumping around every few seconds but hundred yard fix problems. If not for these problems the HCX would seem to be "the one". I really do like knowing how fast I've been walking and how far I went even if it is always pretty much the same and if I won't remember it for more than a few hours. Dependability is a big deal to me. The 60 Csx appears to have a better, more dependable odometer function but also has a dimmer, harder to see display and it is bigger and less pocketable too. From what I read the 60 Csx just seems more reliable overall. No, I haven't taken it and an HCX out in the sun to see how their displays look, anybody done that or used both for these kinds of uses? Then there is the 76 Csx, it floats but otherwise is much like the 60 Csx. I'll have to attach a bright float to any GPS though so that I can find it if the yak dumps in the surf or out in the Gulf of Mexico in the big waves. Old, poor balance and feeble won't let me stand up in a kayak to look for a gray GPS floating low in grayish water. Heck, I'm lucky not to overturn just sitting down. Last thing is the ease of getting and using software and of course the expense. Any idea what I'd need to buy for these uses? I'm sort of thinking City Map for North America and also for Europe (it will go to other countries in Europe eventually) OK, what say you for these uses? And, yeah, that's a lot of uses and some conflict with others sort of but there it is. Oh yeah, where's a good place to buy, reliable, cheap and will exchange if there's problems? Thanks

I got a Garmin Nuvi 200W for the car today. It is my first gps. Tonight I'm planning a trip and can't figure out how to set a start point a few states away and an end point a few states farther to see what route the 200W calculates. Any ideas? Thanks PS the Nuvi 200W seems pretty nice in many ways for an inexpensive gps. Cabelas had them for $170.

Edit: post removed, ref. Owners ONLY

I hope to do some more checking with my Vista HCx over the weekend, but I my initial experience with the recent upgrade has significantly improved my satisfaction with this GPSr. Clearly, 2.30 had a bug in it and Garmin, imho, has done a lot to correct the problems with that bug in 2.40. I think it is important that we remember the context here - we are talking about a consumer grade GPSr. It is a unit that functions well, but with an established margin of error. As near as I can tell, the Vista HCx that I own is now functioning within the margin of error that comes with the product's description. If you need something more accurate than that, perhaps you should consider spending several thousand dollars for a survey quality instrument and the software necessary to calculate the correction. If the track distance and the odometer distance don't agree closely then clearly something is wrong. Buyers should not be involved in the debugging-the-new-product do-loop. Debugging should happen Before sales begin. This ain't rocket science, it's simple and easy to understand.

I'm on hold too. Eventually we will know. Garmin seems to be moving on this, hope they continue until they get it right, if it is not yet right. What you guys don't understand is that if the accuracy is around 10 feet, then you can't count on ANY GPS to know you've moved at all unless you go at least 10ft from your previous point. The tracking is a series of estimates. The HCX and all the others do a great job of this, but unless you find a GPS with less than 1ft accuracy all the time, you won't be happy. I have used the HCx tracking on many occasions now and it works fine. Just don't expect your "speed" field on the display to show .3 mph when your accuracy is worse than 10ft or so... Good comment, still if I move a hundred feet linear at .3 mph (222 seconds) it should at least know I've moved somewhere between 80 and 120 feet and have calculated an average speed of .2 to .4 mph, should it not? As I understand it, the problem has been that you could move a mile, in an hour, and that the HCX will tell you that you haven't moved at all. If I move 3 miles in 3 hours and it tells me I have only moved .2 miles then that is not even close to being OK. Even with a fix within 15 or 20 feet, each time it takes a location point, it should at least give a total distance, total time and average speed that is pretty close....if you are walking in a reasonably straight line. On the other hand, if the trail has lots of turns and double backs then it would be reasonable for the odometer distance to have a lot of error.