Sue and Bernie

The unit is the hi-res colour screen job with compass, barometer and 24mb of internal memory. The internal memory can hold about 1/4 or the UK at a time. You all probably know about it already but for the full SP, go here: Garmin Etrex Vista C... The unique feature of this sale is the inclususion of Garmin City Navigator Europe V7. This covers the whole of Europe (naturally) and provides full autorouting down to street level with turn-by-turn directions with sound prompts at juctions on the Vista C. The software is unlocked to this specific Vista C through its serial number. Note: the second "unlock" was used to enable this software to work with this Vista C - it cannot be used with any other Garmin unit. This software is not available for standalone sale in this country, it is normally only available packaged with Garmin's high end hardware (this originally came with our Streetpilot 2610). You could buy it from the US but it is very, very expensive. Formal ownership of the software and GPS unit will be transfered to the new owner via Garmin UK. We would prefer this package to go to a good home with member of the UK site. They would appreciate it and get best use from it. If you would like more detail, contact me for a data sheet we've knock up or post questions on this thread. The Vista C is in pristine condition. We are looking for offers in excess of £200 (this is all inclusive with next day Special Delivery). It is an "Atlantic" model with the European base map - not that you'll use it with CN7 available! All manuals and PC lead included. Please PM your offers to me through the site, best offer received by 2200 Fri 7 Apr 06 takes the bundle.

If you own 2 Garmin units that "share" one of Garmin's high end software for auto-routing, you can, with Garmin's blessing, sell off the units, each with a copy of the relevent unlock code. The reason that Garmin do not mind is that the unlocking process fixes the software to the actual serial number of the GPS units. It will never work with any other unit. The actual software discs are not protected - they can be readily duplicated. Of course, the codes will only enable the software to work with the GPS units to which it was unlocked. I have done this before now, selling a StreetPilot 3 with the City Navigator V6 software (informing the buyer that both unlocks were used) and transferring the registration with Garmin. In accordance with advice from Garmin, I retained copies of the software discs and codes to enable me to continue using the CN software with my Vista C. Since then, I have bought a Streetpilot 2610 with CN V7. I unlocked this to work with the SP and Vista C. With the recent upgrade to CN V8, I have "upgraded" my hand held by buying a Vista Cx. I've got the V8 update unlocked to use it with the SP 2610 and the new Vista Cx. Soon I will be offering my redundant Vista C for sale complete with a street-legal, original version of City Navigator Europe V7. Ownership will be formally notified to Garmin. The CN V7 software enables the Vista C to provide full autorouting for anywhere in Europe down to street level. The 24mb internal memory holds about 1/4 of the UK at a time - quite enough for our pushbikes! I will offer the unit and software for sale here on this forum first - this is an informed audience who should realise what a unique opportunity this is. Any wanting more info, PM me for an info doc...

Ours comes from an A3 caricature drawn a few years back at a social function in Germany. We have reduced the image and had it made into an ink stamp for use in logbooks. Bicycling is our favoured means of transport for our cache hunts - in the summer when we do most of our caching (and cycling). We've cleared most of our local area, leaving a few around home for the coming warmer weather. To get further afield, we have to hoist the bikes onto the car and drive to a convenient supermarket and cycle off into the distance.

Well aware of the 21% Tax - but they're still cheaper! Same kit, lower total price. Do the sums yourself - you will still be better off and be saving money buying from Aspidshop.

Garmin's move to incorporate microSD (formally known as Transflash) memory cards is long overdue. This upgrade fixes the greatest shortfall in the eTrex family of handheld GPS units. I have plumped for upgrading my Vista C for a Cx model. I love the small and compact size of the unit, fits nicely onto the handlebars of my bicycle. The 32MB card that came with the unit has already been relegated in favour of a 256MB alternative. This has loaded the whole of the UK, Ireland, Holland and big, dense chunks of Germany and Belguim from Metroguiade Europe V7. When my upgrade to City Navigator V8 arrives, I shall be unlocking it for my Streetpilot and the Vista Cx. This will give me full autorouting on the Vista Cx on the bike and the Streetpilot in the car.

We had a bit of a close encounter at "GCQ8XF - Travel Bug Priory" on Nov 20 last year: The Cache in Question... ...when Bernie nearly stepped on a huge deer sleeping in the undergrowth. He thought it was a dead dog until, in best horror movie tradition, it rose up and bounded away. Dunno who was the more startled...

I use a HP Ipag H6340 for everything - phone, gps guidance - even video stuff. For mounting in the car, I went for one of these: GPS for less... This one is a simple holder - I actually bought the amplified speaker version that charges the PDA as well as boosting the announcements. I use a bluetooth earpiece with the phone. It was not cheap but it does do the job exceedingly well

...and having just upgraded to a Vista Cx, I will soon be flogging off my old Vista C. It will have a fully legal copy of City Navigator Europe V7 that is unlocked to the internal serial number with it. Full autorouting in a wee hand held unit down to street level for the whole of Europe. I am waiting to upgrade to CN8 before selling the Vista C with its CN Europe V7. I have the (emailed) blessing of Garmin themselves to "split" my two Garmin units, a StreetPilot 2610 and the Vista C that both use this software. Garmin will transfer registration of one of the two available "unlocks" to the new owner of my Vista C. Anyone interested, PM me for details rather than bore the pant off everyone with the details.

...or here for a new Atlantic (European) unit: Aspid Shop (Portugal) - next day by Fedex...

I bought from Aspidshop in Portugal. I cannot post the link at present, their server must be down. Google for them later, you won't be disappointed. They're in Europe so you get the proper European models, they collect tax (@21% - ouch!) so there's no more tax or duty to pay and their low prices still make them the cheapest supplier. Many of us have bought from them over recent years and they are regularly recommended. Delivery is ridiculously fast - the Fedex (whatever) delivery man was banging on my door at crack-of-sparrows the following day!

We've become "Public Rights of Way" Spotters like so many others... ...Geo-geeking is a great way of getting all the family out and about in the countryside - and enjoying it! ...and we love introducing friends and family to the unseen treasures and corners of the own localities courtesy of other cachers who draw us to the areas. Enjoy...

...Reading your posts more closely I note that you say you have "City Navigator". You can use this with two Garmin units providing the second unlock has not been used.

Garmin only lock their software that provides autorouting data. This is usually the City Select or City Navigator programmes. The rest of their Mapsource data programmes are unprotected and do not require "unlocks". The Vista C was advertised as providing autorouting, it even said so on the box - but it will only do this if you have the right software. As standalone products CS and CN are v. expensive and usually unobtainable. Europeans can buy CS/CN USA in Europe and the Yanks can get CS/CN Europe in the States. Garmin's marketing policy - go figure! If you already own a Garmin unit that came with CS or CN software, you can use the second unlock provided with the software to enable you to use it with a second Garmin unit. We did this and use the CN that came with our SP2610 with our Vista C. We now have full autorouting on the handlebar of our pushbikes - super!

I can provide the definitive answer to the OP as we own a SP 2610 and a Vista C and use the software with both. City Navigator 7 WILL download data that will run in the Vista C providing that the second "unlock" with the programme has not been used. This will enable the Vista to provide full autorouting. Before the SP2610, we had an SP3 and loaded the then current CN6 into both units. We sold the SP3 along with the original discs, advising the buyer that we had used the second unlock with our Vista. Surprisingly, Garmin advised us to keep a copy of the CN6 discs to use with the Vista. Once the software is unlocked to the internal electronic serial number of one of Garmin's GPS units, it cannot be changed. Once you've used the 2 unlocks, you've had it until you purchase the next upgrade to CN... and I've kept hardcopies of Garmin's emailed advice too! The Vista Cx will be a better bet because of its extended memory capacity - there is some debate about the future size of the map "tiles" in CN8 because of the 24 MB limit of the earlier units that cannot accept a memory card.

Ekso, Do not concern yourself overly with the base map - it's pish! ...and that goes for whatever unit you settle for. Assuming you are looking for a unit that will store hi-rez maps, when you install them, as you will eventually want to, the hi-rez maps are displayed instead of the basemap. Shop through eBay for a good deal but do your research first - new units can be bought at reasonable prices from European sources. I got my Vista C from: Aspidshop... ...based in Portugal I believe. The unit arrived at crack-of-sparrows the very next day. Cheaper, faster - and a European unit too. Just had a look as site myself. It's fantastics. Alrady on my favourites. So, whwt you're saying is that if the basemap does not matter, should I get one from the US. I have friends that come to the UK regulary. Lastly, which one !! Garmin Vista ? If I was in the market for another Garmin GPS unit, I would definately be going for one of the new ****Cx models for the micro-SD card facility. The previous Vista and Legend C models (I have the Vista C) only have 48 MB of memory. This is restrictive on the map "tiles" you can load. If your area of interest is close to the boundary of two large tiles, you may not be able to install them both. I actually use City Navigator 7 with my Vista, this software came with my Streetpilot 2610 and can be unlocked to use with 2 different Garmin units. It gives me the autorouting facility of the SP on my Vista - fitted to the handlebars of my bike. With the next upgrade of CN, I may find that my use of the software is restricted by Garmin re-defining the map tiles. ...so, just like computers, memory space is the biggy!

Ekso, Do not concern yourself overly with the base map - it's pish! ...and that goes for whatever unit you settle for. Assuming you are looking for a unit that will store hi-rez maps, when you install them, as you will eventually want to, the hi-rez maps are displayed instead of the basemap. Shop through eBay for a good deal but do your research first - new units can be bought at reasonable prices from European sources. I got my Vista C from: Aspidshop... ...based in Portugal I believe. The unit arrived at crack-of-sparrows the very next day. Cheaper, faster - and a European unit too.

I originally bought a wee Palm IIIxe for paperless caching because it was a cheap and cheerful route into the subject. It was excellent. I started to use the PDA functions of the little black box including a fantastic Palm folding keyboard (since I touch-type). Full word processing in your pocket - or rather in two! Using the Palm completely won me over to using one of these things to pull all the info you need together - car MOTs, insurance, work & family stuff. In the end, if it did not get put in the box, it didn't get done! We wanted to be able to use Memory-Map too, so we started to look at Pocket PC equivalents. At the same time, life was getting cluttered. As we went to go out (caching or otherwise), we were loading up with phone, pda, gps, specs and other essentials. Sue was buying larger and larger handbags, I was basing my choice of coats/jacket on the number of pockets available. The partial solution for us was to move to a PPC phones. It doesn't get round carting specs along but it does wrap up phone, pda and GPS (I love TomTom too)

Love that button! Good Man Lordelph...

We are not keen - not being religious, we avoid churches and graveyard caches simply to avoid causing any offence. We're just not comfortable going into places to which others attach such great importance to or have strong feelings about. Don't get me wrong, we are not bothered about the occupants of graveyards, it's just that we would find it very difficult and too embarassing to explain our presence, playing a game, to someone there for more personal reasons, particularly if it occurred at a sensitive time for the inquisitor. We understand that others cachers take special care to ensure that they do not impact on others in such places - we're just too thoughtless and noisy so it's easier for us simply to go after other caches. Once we cycled 15 miles to a puzzle cache and found that we needed to enter a church to obtain answers. We didn't think it an appropriate thing to do so we got back on our bikes and enjoyed the cycle home. Each to their own...

I prefer my Ipaq 6340 - it is a pda with a phone rather than the other way round. Going proper PDA gives you a bigger screen (and clunky looking phone) which you can use for Memory-Map, Tomtom or other routing programme. Blue tooth and Wifi are super too... ...and it plays a mean game of Scrabble!

I would not concern yourself about the basemap, it is rudimentary at best. When you install hi-res maps from Garmin data discs/programmes, it overwrites the basemap so, if you install maps of your area of interest, you will never see the basemap. I last used the basemap in the Oman - it was pish! If you really feel the need, you can obtain Garmin's WorldMap programme. This has the whole set of "basemaps" at pish resolution and accuracy.

Can't you just make these a 5/5?

Fully sympathise because we live in rural sticksville Norfolk but I still find myself siding with Stonefisk. I have a small post office in the local shop not 150m from our front door - but they also close lunchtimes, shut Saturdays and do not hold parcels or do the tax thing. The business is, as it always has been, organised for the benefit of the suppliers of the service rather than the consumers (and paymasters). This ingrained attitude would doom any business to failure - and can only be imposed on consumers by a monopoly service supplier. So... I will be registering both our cars electronically, save myself a 20 mile round trip and a couple of hours off work each time - and of course, it will generate more mail traffic so it's not all bad news.

Seconded on both counts...

I too have migrated from a Palm IIIxe to a Pocket PC - mainly driven by my desire to consolidate the burgeoning amount of kit I was beginning to have to lug around. Being able to use MM in the field was a driver too (althought the PPC eats its battery) and, after I got TT5 with POI-Warner to alert me to the locations of "safety" cameras, I find myself permanently on the Dark Side. Indeed, we go a second PPC for Sue too. I still have the Palm and do miss Cachemate - I am using GPSonar instead - but would be delighted to return to Cachemate. Quick question, would the original Palm registration be honoured on the PPC or would users need to register a second time?