timk54

Yes you did. The satellite labeled #48 (PRN 135) is the PanAmSat Galaxy15 launched last fall and it is providing WAAS correction data. It's still in a test phase period so it doesn't always provide sufficiently accurate information (i.e. ephemeris data) on its own position to be used for ranging the way the regular GPS satellites are and that's why you saw a hollow bar. But the 'Ds' on other satellite bars is an indication that you were getting correction data for them and if #48 was the only WAAS satellite signal received then that's the source of the correction data. Note that the moment you see a signal strength bar of any kind it means that your receiver has locked onto the signal from that satellite. If it's a solid bar then you know that in addition the receiver has valid ephemeris data for that satellite and can use its signal in calculating a position. Conversely a hollow bar either means that the ephemeris data has not yet been received or that it's marked as invalid in some way and therefore shouldn't be used. Thank you for the informative response. timk54

I was caching today and watching my sattelite page to see if it found a WAAS signal. I had solid bars on 10 sattilites and d's on most of them but they were all numbered less than 28 I did have a hollow bar with a 48 below it. Did I have a lock on a WAAS signal? Found 5 caches today and the GPSr distance on the compass page lead me to as close as 1 foot in one instance and 2 feet in another. So I'm not complaining about the way it is working just curious if WAAS is working. timk54

This whole map thing confuses the heck out of me. I loaded some US TOPO maps onto my Vista CX and can't seem to get the right setup when trying to follow the road. timk54

I purchased the Vista Cx about three weeks ago. My son just bought a 60CSx. I pais $349 at GPSNOW for the Vista CX The 60CSX was $499. My first GPSr was a Magellen Sportrac. My wife used it mainly to navigate our way to our gold claims. I bought the Vista Cx for the geocaching feature and for the removable memory chip. I also like the electronic compass it comes with. I am beginning to figure out the controlls My son ans I did a heads up trial last week to compare the two units his 60 CSx was more accurate but I found since that I had made some setup errors in my unit. We will try the test again soon. I think you will like the Vista Cx but iaf money is no object the 60CSx looks mighty good. TimK54

Great advise. Thank you all for your ideas. I think the best advise was to start with the basics. The terminology is somewhat confusing. On Road /off road what is the difference. There are many other phrases used that I have to learn the meaning of. (Sister Marie Ellen would kill me for ending that last sentence with a preposition). I practice with my Vista Cx every day. I will not give up. TimK54

The norm is for people to only voice bad news. Bad news travels a lot faster than good news. Satisfied customers rarely speak up. I have noticed on this forum that there are more kudos than complaints about Garmin customer service. Congradulations Garmin you are doing it right. TimK54

I so glad that someone with a Vista Cx is figuring things out plese post ,email or send a mental image of anything that will make my learning curve easier. I'm sure my Vista Cx will be a great tool as soon as I can get the ooeration figured out. TimK54

The area I was searching was in a desert rural area and I did have the unit set to "On Road" I reset it to off road and will try it tomorrow. I have US topo map loaded for another area 150 miles from my home. when caching I am confused about turning one map or the other on or off.

Actually, killing snakes is increasingly becoming illegal in many states and in many state, city, county and national parks and wilderness areas, so you likely had the law on your side when you were dealing with the dean and his idiotic statement. If there is anything such as reincarnation, it woud be much fun if he were to reincarnate as a snake in his next lifetime. What a strange twist to such a simple post. I just love it. TimK

Is there a step by step how to manual written by someone who uses a Garmin GPSr. I have read the manual and gleaned information from the forum. I still get lost trying to navagate. I know my Vista Cx hasn't been out long but Id love to read a step by step walk through like the video gamers use. Am I out of my mind or is this a reasonable request.

thanks Bill can you tell me why the thing kept calculating over and over. TimK

Good Job! Many people would have needlessly killed it. Thanks for being a good steward of our wildlife, even though it might be somewhat of a threat to us at times. Never would kill a rattlesnake but I still give them a lot of respect

the stock version was 2.2 the new upgrade is 2.3

I was within a couple hundred feet of the cache location when my GPSr started acting crazy It kept calculating over and over I finally shut it off ann restarted but got the same result. Whats going on? When searching for a cache what screen do you follow? Is the best one the compass screen that shows the feet to the cache and the pointer? Last question. When I downloaded the cache loc files last night they weren't savet to the geocache folder in my GPSr they were saved to waypoints. Whats up with that. Did the Garmin update I installed recently screw things up? Thanks for helping timK54

My sons and I went to the desert to work our gold claim today and on the way deciced to collect a couple caches. the first one was easy. The next one was a little more exciting. We parked on the dirt trail not far from the cache and walked through the brush toward the cache. I was watching the GPSr when I heard my son say "Hey, there's a rattlesnake". We had just passed by a three foot long Mojave Green Rattlesnake sunning itself at the edge of a brushy area a couple feet from where we had just walked. Seems early in the season to see a snake but there he was. We let him be and he didn't bothere us. We found the cache stached in another nearby bush. Be Careful. Timk54

Purists don't think that. Misguided ones might, but it is not part of the Purists’ constitution. Anyway, OP you sound like you have a problem with cheaters, as well you should. Tough to do anything about though. Seems like a non-issue to me. It's the same as cheating at solitare. I havent found that many caches yet but I can already see that the coordinates may get me close but experience and common sense does the rest.

It was worth the try Neo. Guess this is just a mystery upgrade. Thanks

How do we get to find out what th improvememts are now that we have uploaded th new firmware. Tim K

Yes Yes, it just come out today. Look Here on the right hand side of the page. How do I know what the update fixed or added to my Vista Cx

My wife and I have been having fun and getting exercise geocaching with the new Vista CX but I have some questions on the operation. I purchased US Topo to use when we go to our gold claims in the mountains and desert. Most of the time she likes to use it while we are driving around town or on short highway trips. I loaded the Topo for a desert claim and now the local map looks different when we are trying to find a cache. I guess I cant figure out how to see the built in road map and get rid of the Topo when I don't need it. Is it really worth the $100 bucks to buy City Navagator for those highway trips? Can I load a part of navagator and part of US Topo and switch back and forth? My removable chip is a 32 MB. Lastly, does the Vista Cx have an update to it's firmware yet and if so how important is it to download it? I'm sure I will be asking more questions so let me thany you now for your informative answers and your patience. TimK

I'm 56 My wife is 36 and my son is 14. We search togeather.

The area shaded in red is what will get downloaded. Garmin maps are made up of many smaller maps. Each one represented by the various boxes on the map. You select what to send to the GPS by selecting the boxes. You cannot select only part of a box to send. You can select individual boxes one at a time, or use the selection tool to highlight a bunch at a time. Took some getting used to for me, since I came from magellan and Mapsend. Not saying one system is better than the other. Just takes getting used too. I have found that navigator does not list usable trail info. If you live near a national park, you may want to consider the Topo 24K National Park Map software from Garmin. Another option is to look for someone who has a custom Garmin map of trails. Also, Garmin Topo has got some trail info in it, but not that great IMHO. If you are inclined to get really techinical, you can make your own transparent map of trails from publicly available data on the net. Then, when enabled, said map will show you the trails along with whatever garmin map you have loaded. But, this is really beyond the scope of this discussion. Just wanted to let you know that there is always a way, just depends how much of a techie you are. Good luck caching. Thanks for the reply The wife and son and I found our first cash today. the Garmin vista Cz tool\ks us to 0 feet and there it was. Now we are hooked. Timk

Thanks to Neo Geo I now have the Topo map west on my hard drive and can download info to my Vista CX. The question is when I select the box drawing tool and put a box around the area I want to send to my GPSR The smaller drawn box disappears and the larger box outlined in yellow turns a shade of red.What exactly gets downloaded? I'm thinking of getting navigator for the drives to the claims. Does navigator list dirt roads and trails? the wife and son and I are going to find our first cache today Wish us luck. thanks again for the help you people give so freely. TimK

So what would happen if I sent my Magellan Sport Trac in for repair? The thing doesn't power up correctly and when it does it shuts down unexpectedly.

I have my brand new Etrex Vista Cx. I purchased US Topo but am confuse don how to load and use maps of the areas I want to see. Can anyone point me to a beginners site where I can learn how to load and use it? If I do get the Topo program up and running do I stick with the WGS 84 datum and hhdd.mm mmm or change to a different datum and min"secs" I'm feeling kind of overwhelmed at this point. Thanks for your help in advance, TimK