Idahogreggory

Well I too got the 200W for Christmas and loved the maps and how fast it acquired a lock so in February I bought the Vista HCx. So far I have been very happy it I installed the City Navigator NT 08 and Topo 08 and have really liked it, it compliments the 200W very nicely. I thought I was having a lag issue so I tried City Navigator 08 the non-NT version but it turned out to me my SD card so I went back to the NT version that way I can store the whole US on a 2Gb card plus the western states. I have been using it for geocaching and can't wait to use it for hunting; it's replacing a Magellan 310. Since I wasn't ever going to use the Canadian maps on my Vista I installed them on my 200W so technically I guess it is now a 250W. I had been a Magellan user up to this year; first I started out with a Magellan 200 that only received eight channels and took 15 min to acquire a lock and then 10 yrs ago upgraded to the 310. I am glad I switched to Garmin both of my new receivers live up to ever one's claim.

You can open up multiple instances of Mapsource with different maps. I do it all the time when I want to make new waypoint lists.

CenTexDodger is 100% correct, that is exactly what I do with my Vista HCx and nuvi 200W.

Yes, that is a good deal. The Vista Cx is a good GPSr and there is nothing wrong with Garmin Topo. Depending where you live you may see little or no change between it and Topo 2008. I have both and the areas I go hunting in the difference is negligible, however, the eastern portion appears to have underwent most changes. All in all I would say that version of Topo will be more than sufficient and IMO it is questionable whether it is justifiable to spend more money for the new version since the overall scaling is the same.

Nope, no memory expansion capable on the Quest II; it originally came with City Select and 115Mb, but after the last update there was less then 35 Mb available for other maps. It would have been nice if you could use data cards or just microSD. If you doubt me verify it here

Yep if it fits use it. I didn't get a cable with my nuvi 200W but I had two usb cables in my box of random computer cables so I used one of those instead of spending the $14 Garmin wants for their cable. Then when I got my Vista HCx a couple of weeks later I left the cable that came with it in the box and continued using the computer cable.

Personally I would check online before just buying locally, sometimes locally can be better but not usually. I got Vista HCX shipped to the door for $233 from Amazon and I heard that Amazon had them in December for $218 w/free shipping!.

I can speak for the Vista HCx; it works great in the car and on the trail. I have Topo 2008 and City Navigator loaded on the Vista and they both work well on it. I also have a nuvi 200W for the car, but in the Jeep I just use the Vista because of the abuse. The Vista does a good job a navigation for a hand held and the way it displays the turns works well and is not too cumbersome to use while driving. It's no nuvi with a huge touch screen but not bad at all.

I have both Topo 2008 and City Navigator 2008; here is what I found between them. City Navigator 2008 ----Street and road location are accurate. ----Some county roads, especially gravel my not show up. ----Few if any BLM or Forest Service roads show up. ----No trails I have seen so far. Topo 2008 ---Some streets and Roads show shifted off from where they are. You see it on the Mapsouce too. ---Does not have all the city streets only some. ---You can navigate but it doesn't route well. (It may be using base map not sure)

craab, You got a good deal. I bought my Vista HCx the first week of January and I have been very happy with it so far. The first thing you need to do is set yourself up an account here at the Garmin site and register your Vista HCx and then download the web updater here so that you get the latest firmware updates. My recommendation is start out with City Navigator 2008 the non-NT version to start with then if you start doing some country caches you may want to invest in Topo 2008. I am sure you will enjoy your new GPSr. Happy and fruitful caching!

I still use DeLorme Topo USA 3.0 to generate all my paper maps. I print them to Adobe PDF with paper size set to 24"x24" and then take the file to Office Depot and have them out. It cost about $3 a map so I get two made and put each of them in their own zip lock bag with a small pencil and a 6"ruler. I know it cheap, but it works and I don't have to jump between quad angle maps.

Well I am one of those so called idiots that BFPierce refers too in his post. I pack 44 mag 7 1/4" Colt Anaconda anytime I an in the woods with six rounds; each one with 240 grain hollow point bullet that leaves the barrel 1,360 feet per second. There has been some good advice about whether to pack a gun ore not and there there has been some, well lets just say less then educated advice freely given. The decision whether to pack a gun or not is dependent upon the comfort level of the individual and is something that can be decided by a few comments in form. If you decide that carrying a gun is right for you then you must also take on the responsibilities that come with a gun. You need to be able to safely handle handle the gun and need to spend a lot of time at the range becoming proficient with it and knowing the guns limitations. Otherwise, stick to the pepper spray and bear bells please. I can relate with ICHTHYS' comment. A few years ago I on an early fall bow hunt for elk. There was this five mile by ten mile tract of land between a highway and river that I wanted to hunt. I decided that I would hunt it cross-corner so my brother in-law dropped me off on the highway and would pick me up at the other side. I had gotten no more then about 200 yards in when I realized that all my calls were in my fanny pack so I stopped, unloaded my pack and got my calls. I decided to give a calf call before I put the items I had taken out of my pack to get to my calls. While I was securing my pack I caught movement to my right, it was a black bear on a lope straight for me about 60 yards away. By the time I drawn the gun, aimed and fired the bear had covered 30 yards. I am just glad he was not on a dead run toward me, otherwise, he would have been on top of me by the time I drawn the gun and could have turned out differently. Now I am glad I had my gun with me, some of you may have been very comfortable with a can of pepper spray in this situation, to each their own. Back to the OP's original statement : "It's dangerous out there." Yes, it can be what happened to me was rare; the animal was just following it's instinct. When you're in the woods the possibility always exists that you may have an unfortunate encounter with wildlife, however, the odds are probably higher these days that you'll have an unfortunate encounter with another human ! Be safe and happy hiking, hunting, and caching.

nuvi 200W (technically a 250W now that I loaded the rest of North America on it) for the car. Vista HCx with Topo 2008 and Cith Navigator 2008 for hunting, Benchmarking and Geocaching.

Amazon.com has it new for $233.89 with shipping included.

Guess I am the only one that chose not to register when I installed City Navigator 2008 and I wasn't asked to create an account. Just say no! Hey that could be a catchy slogan for other things.

TeamSWAG, I have tried City Navigator 2008 NT and non-NT in my Vista. NT uses less space and few segments but did seem to slow down the display refresh acting like the screen was frozen, however, the non-NT version responds quicker but I can not load as many states in the same space. The trade off between the two that I have seen so far is with NT version I can load City Navigator for the entire contiguous 48 states and load Topo 2008 everything west of the Dakotas, excluding Oklahoma and Texas. However, with the non-NT version I can only everything west of the Dakotas, excluding Oklahoma and Texas for both mapping products at the same time.

xoslic89, The error message is confusing. You are definitely trying to load approximately a 1.6GB file, it states there is 2GB available but mentions only a 1GB microSD. Do you have a 1GB or 2GB miroSD in your Vista? If you are only using a 1GB microSD then that is the problem if you are using a 2GB card and have a reader available make sure it is formated correctly and there is over 1.6GB available. If everything is correct then try the master reset since the GPSr is not reporting back the correct information to your computer.

My recommendation would be to get the City Navigator 2008 non-NT versionon DVD for your Vista and a 2GB micro SD ($14 online). I originally installed the NT version and it slowed screen refresh noticeably. Also the Topo 2008 complement Navigator real well, but make Navigator your first priority since you mentioned :

I ended up with a nuvi 200W and a Vista HCx. My wife got me the nuvi for Christmas for the car and I bought the Vista for hunting and now Geochaching. I like have the two dedicated units, well sort of I do use the Vista for navigation in the Jeep since not all of it's wheels stay on the ground 100% the time and I don't want the nuvi bouncing off the windshield, one for the car and the other for the field. Both unit together totaled $440, that's half of what I paid for my first GPSr back in 93 and all it could do was point after lit locked on to two eight Sat's in about 15- 20 minutes; you gotta love the new technology!

I switched over tonight too from NT to non-NT and what little I played with it I noticed that it did improve the speed of the screens and the pointer. I'll do more testing but it does appear to be faster responding. I also noticed that the map segments were smaller and required more memory with the non-NT version. With the NT version I could load all of the contiguous 48 states and Topo 2008 west of the Dakotas, Oklahoma, and Texas. However, with the non-NT I could only load the non-NT and Topo 2008 west of the Dakotas, Oklahoma, and Texas in approximately the same number of segments and memory 1.2 Gb. Good Find Hermit!

Well I just got the Vista HCx to replace my Magellan 310 I used for hunting. My wife got me a Nuvi 200W for Christmas and I was immediately hooked on the maps. I now have City Navigator for the contiguous states and Topo 2008 for all the states west of the Dakotas loaded on on a 2Gb micro SD and still have 147Mb for tracks. I have used the Vista for street navigation and it's not bad , the only short coming is the small screen and old eyes.

Some of us use our GPS for more then just geo caching. I use mine for hunting too which generally starts out at around 18-20F in the morning and may warm up to mid 30's or lower 40's if it's a heat wave. I have two other friends that toss theirs in their back pack while snowmobiling so they can track their trip when they get home and those GPSr have seen -20F in the morning warming up to a balmy -5F in the afternoon. One of the guys uses alkaline in his Magellan eXplorist BW (screen) and the other uses 2400mAh NiMH in his Garmin Quest and both are getting over eight hours of continuous use.

I just carry my extra SD and adaptor in the flap of my MicroPack case GPS Outfitters

My friend has a Quest that he really likes, but it wasn't my choice for two reasons. First his doesn't accept extra memory and the last update took up a large chunk of his 115 Mb internal memory. Second, the screen is too small for me when driving. My wife bought me the nuvi200W for the car which has a real nice sized screen and then I bought the Vist HCx for hunting, hiking, and now geo caching. The combined cost of both of mine was slightly less, like $40, then what my friend paid for his Quest. I don't know if this helps you at all but that was my reasoning for buying two GPSrs

ecanderson, I hear ya, I too have had my GPSr literally put me right on top the cache as long as I let it settle; I just thought this was normal. I just started geo caching (12 chaches total found no DNFs yet!) since I bought a Vista HCx three weeks ago. However, I have been using a GPSr for the past 14 years while out hunting to so I could find the truck quickly when I was done. I first started out with a 8 channel Magellan (200 something) back in 93 then migrated to a 12 channel Magellan 310 but finding a truck doesn't take any great skill.