I bought a Vista HCx in September 2007 to compare with the GPSMAP 60CSx which was the
first Garmin GPS I had owned which could reliably make satifactory satellite connection under heavy
forest cover.
Surprisingly the cheaper Vista HCx (which used a MediaTek chipset instead of the SirfStar3 in the 60CSx)
exhibited equivalent good sensitivity under forest cover.
However, on my first trip up to Buck Creek Pass (Glacier Peak Wilderness - Washington), the Vista HCx
drifted off to the wrong side of the canyon (an obvious error of almost 1000 feet). At the same time
my 60CSx was displaying a location which agreed with the topography. This condition persisted for
about 20 minutes until I turned the Vista HCx off and back on which restored it to a location within a few
feet of that given by the 60CSx.
[ later edit - I just wanted to add this. During the time my Vista HCx was wandering off by about 1000
feet, it was reporting full connections with the same set of 5 or 6 satellites as the 60CSx and was claiming
a similar error estimate of under 30 feet. So this problem is not simply one of limited connectivity but
perhaps rather one of aggressive or reckless hardware/software engineering regarding the multipath
problem. The bottom line was that the Vista HCx did not appear able to be self correcting once it
became confused. Not the kind of behaviour which would qualify it as reliable. So it is worrisome to
hear that the revised 60CSx is switching to a MediaTek chipset. By the way, I do not use the "lock on
road" feature - ever. ]
I still carry both the Vista HCx and 60CSx on all my trips. Although I have only witnessed the "drift"
problem on that one occurrence, I tend to leave the HCx turned off and just use the 60CSx, even though
the 60CSx battery life is not as good. I am willing to lose a bit of battery life to gain more confidence
in location reliability. I really like the 60CSx. I have read in some recent Groundspeak forum
postings (use search term MediaTek) that garmin is soon switching to a MediaTek chipset for the
60CSx. It might be a good idea to get a 60CSx with the SirfStar chipset while you still have a chance.
Then again, perhaps the looming 60CSx uses a different MediaTek chipset which doesn't have the
drift problem - but I wouldn't hold my breath on that one. I'll call Garmin Tech Support tomorrow to
ask, but they wouldn't admit to this "drift" problem for the HCx back in 2007 and I don't know whether
they are still in denial. [ I called today. No longer in denial, but still not any light shed on the issue,
and the fellow I talked with is going to try to dig in to the issue a bit more. ]
Good Luck.
