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Barrettg

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Everything posted by Barrettg

  1. Charles, Following the threads that follow, ie., the 60 CSx, the 76 CSx, and the Vista HCx, follow this link: https://buy.garmin.com/shop/compare.do?cID=...pareProduct=351 Either click on the link, or cut and paste the entire thing onto browser and then compare for yourself. Good Luck !
  2. Spade, you made an excellent choice in the Vista eTrex HCx. I bought mine in January and have been very, very happy with it. My last unit was a Garmin GPS III Plus. It worked (and still does), well, but I was ready to upgrade to the more sensitive receiver, etc...... Similar to the prior recommendation, I would also suggest that you purchase Topo 2008 and a micro SD card. Preferrably 2 gigs. The base map that comes with your Vista will allow you to find caches right out of the box. It may not, however, show obstacles between your present position and the cache. Like a lake or pond for example that might require that you go around. Or a very steep ascent, etc...... One of the handiest features that you'll like about your new unit, is the ability to download the coordinates and cache name directly from this site. Enjoy your unit and don't look back. You made a great decision. Let us know how you do on your first find. Gil
  3. Moonpup, I live in Chicopee, Massachusetts. We have a very, very busy street at a very dangerous intersection. About 15 years ago, the City changed the traffic flow from a two way pattern to a one way pattern. All traffic coming over the Davitt Memorial Bridge into the City must take a right hand turn. If you turn left, you would be entering onto a 3 lane, one way section of Front street, heading against the traffic. My son, who is a relatively new driver, was relying on the GPS, which he shouldn't have been in our own City, but, nonetheless was. When he was told to turn left onto Front Street, he did exactly that. Once on Front Street, he realized that he was now facing three lanes of oncoming traffic. He froze and started flashing his headlights to give the oncoming traffic a heads up that he was going the wrong direction. It took an alert Police Officer to come to his aid and block the oncoming traffic until he was able to get the vehicle reoriented. He got off with a warning and not a ticket thank goodness. The inaccuracy of the map and resultant intruction to "turn left onto Front Street" could have resulted in a head on collision. I guess that would qualify as a dangerous situation. Gil
  4. Whartonia, You don't mention whether or not you have downloaded the cache (.gpx) file from Geocaching.com or MyGarmin. I am assuming you have. When you go to FIND and then GEOCACHE, you presumably click on the cache that you want to go to. Once you've selected the cache, the compass should pop up. At the bottom of the screen, you should see FOUND, NOTE and STOP. Once you have found the cache, you can click on found and the closed treasure chest icon will change to that of an opened (found) treasure chest. Hope this helps. Gil
  5. Ken, Here's a very thorough comparison. http://users.erols.com/dlwilson/gpswaas.htm Hope this helps. Gil
  6. GCPD957, You've done a very good thing. Congratulations ! You are now the proud owner of one of the most reliable, accurate and versatile handheld GPSr on the market. I've had my unit since January of 2008 and absolutely love it. It puts me on top of caches. Like you, I use my unit for hiking, off-roading and other similar outdoor adventures. I have a basic Garmin 340C Street Pilot in my vehicle to get me near the caches. The rest is left to the HCx. In terms of the Chipsets. I'll pit the eTrex Vista HCx Chipset against any other including the SIRF Chipset that used in the 60 CSx. Have fun, enjoy your unit, and don't look back. You made a great decision. Gil
  7. The Garmin eTrex Vista HCx chipset is a non-issue. My Vista HCx is the most reliable, accurate and sensitive unit I've ever used. You will not be disappointed.
  8. Susan, First things first. Congratulations for receiving recognition from your Company. In today's day and age, that is sometimes difficult or often overlooked. Kudos for your Company to take the time to not only give some recognition to an employee who has performed above and beyond, but to provide a reward as well. Great job! Keep it up. With regard to your choice of a unit.............. I can't give any better advice than those before me. I happen to use a Garmin eTrex Vista HCx. It has a small footprint. A very nice, readable, color screen. It can be used right out of the box for geocaching. It's simple to use and, the good news is, if you decide you like geocaching, you don't have to go out and replace this unit, merely upgrade with some City Navigator or TOPO USA maps, etc........ The unit, right out of the box, comes with basic mapping of the Continental U.S., Alaska, etc......... As with another contributor above, I have come to LOVE the electronic compass feature and the fact that it will point me right in to the cache with a direction arrow, distance, time to arrival, etc...... I'm always right on the cache. Hope this helps. Gil
  9. Evil, I currently use the Vista HCx and I can tell you that if you purchase that model you will not be disappointed. You will fall in love with the electronic compass. As with all experienced hikers, I too carry a mechanical/analogue compass in my backpack. When all else fails, nothing like the basics. That being said, be sure to check out the Vista HCx. Regarding SD cards. 2 Gb's is the max currently. I have one half of the U.S. on my card and it takes up 990 megabytes. Hope this helps. G
  10. Jolandy, I am currently using a Garmin Vista Hcx. I have consistently gotten within 6 to 10 feet of every cache found. I consider that to be absolutely incredible, considering that many who place cache's don't necessarily spend the time to average their position in order to get the seeker in closer. I've heard great things about the Colorado class Garmins, however the did and/or do have some initial bugs that are being worked out. If you're not looking to spend the kind of $$$ necessary to get a Colorado, but want to get in close, take a close peak at the Garmin Vista HCx. Also, be sure to go to Garmins Product page where you can draw comparisons of other Garmin units. As an aside, I initially purchased a Magellan Triton 400. In less than 24 hours I returned it for too many reasons to list here. It's in another post somewhere on here. Hope this helps. G
  11. Johnny, I am currently looking at my handheld Garmin GPS III Plus. I can't remember what year I purchased it, but it was definitely in the 90's. It was and is a great unit. It's somewhat big by today's standards. It has a flip up antenna, and the unit itself is probably 1 1/2 times the size of a Garmin Vista Hcx, (my current GPSr). When responding to your question, I actually went over to my gear closet and pulled out the GPS III Plus and put is side by side with the Vista Hcx. Sparked both of them up. the Vista acquired 9 satellites in a matter of about 12 seconds. The III Plus took about two minutes to lock onto 4 satellites. One of which is so minimal that I'm not sure that it counts. I actually have an older GPS that was installed in my vehicle in 1995. It's currently in a box in the basement. It Cost $2,500. The GPS itself was controlled by a laptop computer mounted under the front passenger seat. The LCD Screen was a 5 inch screen. Pretty good for those days. It also included a rear mounted Gyro. It was quite elaborate. Now you can go out and buy a portable Magellan or Lowrance or Garmin for a couple of hundred bucks and it does a whole lot more than the old dinosaurs. G
  12. Team R2, Coggins stole a little bit of my thunder but............... Given that your Vista Hcx is a barometric altimeter, it relies on ambient, external conditons. Riding inside of a car is different than being on the ground outside of the car. If you want to autocalibrate your altimer and barometer, it will take about 30 minutes, standing or sitting still, outdoors. The wandering that you refer to could be the result of a number of factors, all of which would be humanly induced, ie., while riding in the car.
  13. O.K., and as a real world, forensic videographer with 20+ years of experience investigating/documenting accident scenes, crime scenes, etc........ , what significance would that have ? Most juries that we present evidence to can barely articulate what they want for lunch. Getting them to appreciate or even understand that the diagram or graphic that they were looking at took into consideration GIS data that the CAD was able to develop into the graphic would be an astonishing accomplishment.
  14. Not to worry, it's deductible as a business (capital) expense. If this was a private interprise I could agree but it is a government agency.. (Police Dept.) Addmhenry: I'm lost as to what you're trying to do. I am a forensic videographer and have 20+ years experience documenting crime scenes, motor vehicle accidents, etc........ Please be more graphic as to what you want to accomplish with a GPS. Normally, when we're documenting a traffic accident, we document the scene by including a description of the intersection involved; or the street address; or whatever other descriptor is necessary in order to establish the location of the scene. Maybe I'm missing the theme of your question. Please articulate. Thanks, G
  15. If bogus track points were produced on all Garmin GPS's then I'd accept that I'm fighting against designed funtionality and that would make it operator error. Since the bogus track points don't show up on my GPSMap60Cx I'll will continue to assume that it's a sloppy implementation by Garmin with their Etrex series (and others?). Giving me a work-around that hides the problem isn't an answer to me. How many times have you gone on an outing and forgotten to turn your track logging back on? For me, turning track points off is just too risky. I rely on those tracks to get home! Ergo, Just a thought. I think you're being a little bit too critical. The solution offered wasn't a workaround, it was a proper use of the equipment. If you want to lay tracks down, turn the capability on. If you don't want to lay the tracks down, turn the capability off. I appreciate that you rely on your unit to get you home. If, in fact, that's the case, then remember when it's important to turn tracks on or turn tracks off. Have a great day! G
  16. Jimmies: First of all congratulations on the family's interest and enthusiasm with regard to Geocaching. My family took to it as well. My youngest Grand Son can't wait until the week-ends roll around so that we can go out and find some booty. (We take and we leave). Your comment ---> "I think I'll go for a Garmin eTrexH." I don't think you'll be disappointed. I am using a Vista HCx. I regularly get within 3 meters of the cache. Yes, 3 meters. The Vista HCx is a little more than the eTrexH, because of the color screen and a few other things, but you'll be more than happy with your choice. Go for it and let us know how you make out. The nice thing with getting a new unit, is tht you can always upgrade once you decide it's necessary, (if ever). Happy Caching and keep us posted! G
  17. The point of the thread is to let Garmin know that their behavior, that is, not disclosing that a customer who purchases a map product must provide a name, address, email address, GPS serial number, IP address, browser version, operating system, and other information to Garmin just to use the product they purchased is not contributing to any customer satisfaction. The thread is intended to poll others and demonstrate that the practice bothers more than just me. It also bothered the many customers who picked all those insulting user names. There was not attempt to be creative, but rather to send a message to Garmin while not cooperating with their registration scheme. Wow. I guess it's all in the perspective. I registered my TOPO 2008 for use with my Vista HCx. It took less than a minute. All of my Garmin products are registered. When I go to MyGarmin when I'm on their site, it shows my products, and all of the information pertaining to them. I can get updates, upgrades, use their geocaching feature and check into other products. I'm very happy with the process. Also, if it helps prevent hackers from paying nothing for a product that I paid Cabela's good money for, then I'm all for it. Perspective I guess...............
  18. "The school has a grant to buy GPS units, but the budget only allows for us to buy about 6 GPS units for about $150." If I'm understanding your post, the budget allows for an expenditure of $900. ($150 X 6 = $900). The two units that you identified, ie., the eTrex H and the eTrex Legend, both allow for PC interface via a serial port. Both provide for greyscale. Neither provides for electronic compass or barometer. With both units, you should be able to go to geocaching.com or garmin.com and download geocache data which will show up as a waypoint on the GPSr itself. Personally, I'd opt for the eTrex H for $99.95. That should allow you to get 8 units (provides for shipping) as opposed to 5 units of the Legend (plus shipping). Also, don't forget to see what Magellan is offering. G
  19. I'm pretty similar to you. I use a Garmin C340 for my over the road nav needs. I use my Vista HCx for hiking, caching, and other off road activities. I purchased Topo 2008 and get all of the detail that I need at 1:100000. I am a former Magellan guy and have used DeLorme maps extensively in the past. The 1:24000 are awesome, but I just don't do enough for it to be a factor. I think you'd be plenty happy with the 1:100000. If you want 1:24000 for the Eastern U.S., you can go to http://www8.garmin.com/cartography/ontheTrail/ , click on a particular map series and then read about what it's specific attributes are. The Eastern Region encompasses a number of states, but is limited to U.S. Parks, Forests, Monuments, etc...... It does not chart every included state, square inch for square inch. In my case, I bought a microSD card for my HCx, bought the TOPO 2008 map, and essentially have 1/2 of the entire U.S loaded on my card. It only takes up about 980kb, leaving me 1.2 mgb's for all else. You won't be disappointed with this setup. Regards, G
  20. Rostro..........., "Pay me now......... Pay me later........." In the end, you're going to end up buying TOPO 2008 or comparable. Don't spend money on SD cards that are limited to a couple fo states or whatever. Get the whole banana and you can then load whatever sections you want onto your unit. Any questions, post them and we'll answer them. G
  21. Hey, SegerGuy, that's great info. Thanks. I'll keep ANTONLINE in mind for future purchases.
  22. Becca's Dad: A proper answer would be that, yes, you could use your C330 to find geocaches with your daughter, however, that answer would assume that you are technologically up to speed and that you're willing to use a couple of unorthodox methods to accomplish the goal. On the other hand.......Good News/Bad News.................. You can use your C330 to get you to where you need to park to begin searching for the cache, but in order to actually get to the cache, you'd be better off with, say, a Garmin eTrex Vista HCx, for example, or something similar. That type of handheld unit will actually assist you in walking up to the cache and then finding it. Getting back to your theme, ie., "What type of sysemt can be used with geocaching"? ..... A Magellan, or Garmin, or DeLorme handheld GPS that allows for the addition of TOPO maps and allows you to connect with your computer so that you can download GeoCache data sheets from WWW.GEOCACHING.COM is ideal. You don't have to sell the farm to get one of these units. Look around on EBay, and other sources. Hope this helps.
  23. Send it back. Your friend should NOT be experiencing a turn on problem.
  24. Dayone, Thanks for the heads up. I was 2.5/2.6. I'm now 2.6/2.6. I get lazy checking the updates. Your post got me off my duff. To all........... Staying current on the updates is pretty important in order to maintain and maximize the potential of your unit. Even if your unit isn't displaying a problem that the upgrade is addressing, it might be fixing something that you're currently not using, but might use in the future. Thanks again Dayone!
  25. ABBY, Similar to Lightning Jeff, I use a Garmin C340 to get me to the trailhead, parking lot, highway, road, or whatever other means of access I need to actually get to before the hunt for the cache. Once I'm parked, I then break out the Garmin eTrex Vista HCx and start the line of sight search. As a helpful hint, when you are looking at a particular cache data sheet on geocaching.com, it generally includes a Yahoo map of the area in which the cache is hidden. In some instances you get both a general area map as well as a more precise location map. I study those for a second in order to know what address to enter in to my C340. Most times I enter the data in terms of intersections and it will get me very close to where I need to be and where I need to park. Sometimes more obvious than other times. In some instances, when I've gotten to an intersection but I'm not quite to where I need to be, ie., the trailhead or whatever, I'll spark up the HCx and it'll give me more clues in terms of which direction I need to go. Let us know how you make out.
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