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jepp2

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Posts posted by jepp2

  1. Count me as a happy eTrex 20 user. The price difference for me 70 USD so I went with the 20. I have 2 Vista HCx units and find the barometric altimeter is of minimal value. The electronic compass would have been nice, but not worth an extra 35% cost. And I have found that I am generally moving when approaching a cache anyway.

     

    If I had the option of either unit at no extra cost, I certainly would have selected the 30. While I have some purchased maps, I have found the free maps to be excellent and I wouldn't buy any more.

     

    My 20 has been rock solid. No problems at all and accuracy is just outstanding.

  2. My old batteries would fail after about ten charges.

     

    Are you serious? I use a La Crosse BC900 with Maha Powerex 2700mAh batteries. I get over 30 hours battery life in my eTrex 20 with track on. And after several years of service, they still work as good as the day I got them. You can use the "refresh" feature to eliminate the memory if that becomes an issue.

     

    I know there are folks that know far more about batteries and chargers than I do, but I just know mine works and provides outstanding battery life.

  3. I have 2 eTrex Vista HCX gps'r that I use for hunting/hiking, and for my geocaching unit I bought the eTrex 20. If someone offered the 30 at the same price as the 20, I would have taken it, but for the extra $70 for the compass it just wasn't worth it to me. I would make the same decision today. But if you have an extra $70, go for it.

  4. I admit I am biased because I have a 20. But I would strongly advise to not buying the 10. My main reason is the limitation about not being able to add maps. You will not be happy with the base map, and with the 10 you are stuck. I would have preferred the 30 but just couldn't justify the added cost for the 3 axis compass. I am extremely happy with the 20 and the maps and the storage card are definitely worth the added cost.

  5. I was making the same decision a couple of months ago. My hiking/hunting GPS is a eTrex Vista HCx. I was intending to mostly use my new addition for paperless caching. I elected to go with the eTrex 20, despite the issues some are having.

     

    I couldn't be happier. I have absolutely no problems with it. Accuracy is outstanding, normally less than 9 feet. Battery life will probably exceed 30 hours with track on. It is my first experience with paperless caching, and it has all that I need. The speed from power on to using is so much faster than my HCx. And the feature I find using the most is the profiles. I wouldn't have ever thought they would be so useful, but to me they are. Why did I choose the 20 versus the 30? I just couldn't justify the extra $80. I would have liked to have the electronic compass, but the barometric altimeter isn't that useful to me on my HCx, and I am getting along just fine with compass on the 20.

     

    I opted away from the 62s due to my experience with the HCx and my familiarity with the button layout and size. If I had purchased the 62s I might have been just as strong of supporter, but economics are important to me and the only real advantage I saw was the antenna. With my HCx and now my 20, I have no trouble getting satellites from the center of my basement, and have never had any troubles being screened due to foliage. And that is during 5000 miles of hiking.

  6. 1. Every time I load additional maps, they overwrite the previous one. I'd like to load several different ones, and switch between them. Is this possible? How do I do it?

    2. Is there a resource to improve the basemap (to include side streets). The stock basemap is pretty vanilla.

    3. Is there a way to use Google Earth to load your own birds eye map views, without having to pay for the subscription.

    4. Upon paying for the subscription, if that happens, are you able to download unlimited maps? It says that the subscription is for a year, but you can keep any map you downloaded (thinking that all I would need to do is spend several hours getting all of the maps I would ever need, thus never needing to renew).

     

    1. 2 ways. With Mapsource I just select all the map segments I want to load before I load then I get them all. With BaseCamp I rename gmapsupp after transferring so you avoid the overwrite.

    2. GPSFileDepot has some pretty good maps, or if you want routable maps go to Open Street Map

    3. I will defer to someone else on this one.

    4. My understanding is for your subscription the downloads are unlimited and you get to keep everything you downloaded after your subscription expires.

  7. Thanks for the quick replies, but does anyone have some information on how to put these on my map, or know where i can go to find out?

     

    GPSFileDepot has instructions with the map on how to load it. I use MapSource and BaseCamp to load them to my GPS. Unless you load them all at once, you will need to rename the map you load, or the next map will overwrite it.

  8. I read this post, as I was having an increasing frequency of my Vista HCx screen freezes. It started with it freezing when I was in a particular location on a trail. Happened each time I passed approximately the same location. But it has been randomly increasing in frequency when the screen would lock up. Yesterday on a 7 mile hike, it froze up twice. It doesn't matter what screen I have displayed when the unit is operating.

     

    I called Garmin today, and their suggestion was to do the reset posted earlier in this thread. The rep was very clear, if the hard reset doesn't correct the problem, they would have to replace the unit.

  9. If you look in the Garmin folder where TOPO installed on your computer, you will find the End User Licensing file. For TOPO USA it is named eula_ENU (a text file that opens with Notepad). For my copy, these are the appropriate bullets:

     

    2. YOU MAY:

     

    a) install and use one copy of the Product on a single computer or network. This copy is to be used by only a single user at a time. If you wish to use the Product for more users, you will need an additional license for each user.

     

    :ph34r: make one copy of the Product for archive or backup purposes.

     

    c) use a copy of the Product on a home or portable computer if that copy is never loaded at the same time it is loaded on your primary computer.

     

    d) transfer the Product to someone else only if you assign all of your rights under this License, cease all use of the Product, erase or destroy any copy (including the hard disk copy) made in support of your use of the Product, and ensure that the other person agrees to the terms of this License.

     

    It runs just fine with Vista. And I had no problem making a copy of the original DVD just using diskcopy. As allowed per the license. There is no locking on USA TOPO 2008.

  10. I want to download waypoints to my Pocket PC2000. What software should I use to do this?

    I can only find software for .gpx files I need something that will handle .loc files

    Did you check the day of the week for it to run? I didn't the first time I tried to run a PQ. Mine are normally mailed within minutes.

  11. I would like to be able to create my custom POI's and load them to my Garmin GPSr's. But it just hasn't clicked with me yet. I normally am not this computer illiterate. It there a thread somewhere, or can you point out what I seem to be missing? My interest is in commercial locations that don't exist in my software.

  12. I'm just getting started in geocaching. So far I have upgraded to a Garmin Vista Hcx, have run Pocket Queries and loaded them into GSAK.

     

    I have a Dell Axim X5, and it looks like I can use CacheMate, GPXsonar, or GPXView for paperless caching. I've seached the forum for a comparison between the three options, but so far haven't found been able to find that review.

     

    Is there much difference? Please share your experience, and help me pick the best choice. If this has already been covered, and you can include the link to take me to it, please do so.

     

    thanks in advance for your help!!!

  13. I think the Forerunner "05" series (205, 305, etc.) has a much better chip than the old "01" series (201, 301, etc.).

    I have a Forerunner 305 and have no problem acquiring satellites from inside my house. It never loses the signal when outside in heavy pine trees.

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