Alphawolf

Yup...It's the windshield. The Chey Lumina van does the same thing. Any of those windshields that look purple or gold from the outside will do the same thing. You need an external antenna to overcome this. "Never take a sunset for granted. Stop what you are doing and enjoy it. You never know when it may be your last"

When they get all the Pizza joints flashing with flourescent orange exclamation points by them, I'll buy one! "Never take a sunset for granted. Stop what you are doing and enjoy it. You never know when it may be your last"

For the day to day messing around stuff, like geocaching, it would be fun. But for anything serious, where your life just might depend on accurate and reliable navigation, like off-shore boating/sailing, flying or back-country traveling, I have always believed that one should never rely on any single source of navigation. I always have a real, non-electronic, magnetic compass with me in those situations. Therefore, other than the "cool" factor during those messing around times, why would I pay for an electronic version of what I will already have with me? That's my point. (But it would still be fun to play with I guess) "Never take a sunset for granted. Stop what you are doing and enjoy it. You never know when it may be your last"

quote: nobody can convince me that navigating by traditional map and compass is somehow 'better' due to its low-tech nature I didn't mean to imply a map and compass insteadof a GPSR. I meant a map and compass witha GPSR! There's nothing in the field you can do with your vista, that I can't do in the field with a regular GPSR and a compass. "Never take a sunset for granted. Stop what you are doing and enjoy it. You never know when it may be your last"

Having a color display makes about as much sense to me as having my timex watch in color.....All I want is the data. At least until we get the same resolution and battery life and price as my V is now! "Never take a sunset for granted. Stop what you are doing and enjoy it. You never know when it may be your last"

I have a little $6.95 Silva that I take with me! No buttons, no screens, no "workarounds", no batteries. Just does one thing and does it well.....It points North! I can't figure out why we want to take something as simple as a compass and turn it into an electronic device that now takes current(quite a bit of it too) and spend a "lot" of extra money on it! Isn't that sort of engineering idiocy? With my Siva, I always know which way I am facing and with my Garmin V, I know (within a few seconds) which way I am traveling. Can't get any simpler than that! And if my batteries go dead or my unit gets dropped against a rock...I still can go home. "Never take a sunset for granted. Stop what you are doing and enjoy it. You never know when it may be your last"

quote: It's using WGS84 The question is...Is WGS 84 the same as you had your legend set to? If it is not, then the waypoints will not be the same. As far as I know, (Which admittedly isn't much) the basemaps are the same between the models. Someone correct me if I'm wrong. "Never take a sunset for granted. Stop what you are doing and enjoy it. You never know when it may be your last"

You can(and should)download and install the "patches" that Garmin makes available for your etrex. Go here to find them: web page Next, you can download waypoints, routes and tracks from any number of software products from your PC to your Garmin. You can, for instance, do your route planning on your PC then navigate the route after dumping it onto your Etrex. Or, you could dump a waypoint that represents, say, a lake you have never hiked to, but would like to visit. On some software products, it's as easy as putting the crosshairs over your target and pressing a keyboard stroke and the coordinates are saved for download to your Garmin. "Never take a sunset for granted. Stop what you are doing and enjoy it. You never know when it may be your last"

O.K. I can see the need (desire) for WAAS when you are geocaching or something like that, off road. But can someone explain why I would want to slow down my machine, by enabling WAAS when I am street driving? As we all know, it puts your re-calculation times in the dirt when WAAS in enabled. I can't see where WAAS would give you one bit of an edge when street driving. But it sure does make things slow down! Comments?? "Never take a sunset for granted. Stop what you are doing and enjoy it. You never know when it may be your last"

quote: At $10 US for a set of 4 batteries, the operational cost is about $0.30 per hour. NiMH rechargeables cost about $3.00 each. Assuming 8 hours on a set of 4 and a recharge life of at least 500 cycles(4000 hours worth), thats only.003 cents per hour (at the most). I would use lithiums if my life depended on my GPSR, but that would be the only time... "Never take a sunset for granted. Stop what you are doing and enjoy it. You never know when it may be your last"

We were informed that due to production problems, not to expect these units until after the first of the year. They will evidently be shipping a few before that, but only to the big accounts, like Cabela's and the sort. it sound like they will be divied out with an eye-dropper until Jan. Bummer....the waiting list grows.... "Never take a sunset for granted. Stop what you are doing and enjoy it. You never know when it may be your last"

quote: I'd love to be able to have "unbroken" tracks if I could Man....Just a couple of years ago, we hadn't even heard of tracklogs. Now we want "unbroken" tracks? Geeeez.....What have we come to? Besides, I seldom use trackback. I hardly ever want to come back out the exact same way I went in! "Never take a sunset for granted. Stop what you are doing and enjoy it. You never know when it may be your last"

quote: I'd love to be able to have "unbroken" tracks if I could Man....Just a couple of years ago, we hadn't even heard of tracklogs. Now we want "unbroken" tracks? Geeeez.....What have we come to? Besides, I seldom use trackback. I hardly ever want to come back out the exact same way I went in! "Never take a sunset for granted. Stop what you are doing and enjoy it. You never know when it may be your last"

Has anyone used the "battery timer" feature in the V to track battery life of these rechargeables in your V? I use GP 1800 Milliamp rechargeables, and am getting only about 6 hours when I checked the timer at the "low battery" warning. I wonder if my charger isn't "topping them off" fully?

On their way to me for my V! I'll post my impressions in a couple of days.

I have had mine over a year now, and there still isn't anything else to compare. I sell these things, and I could have any model of any brand, nd this is still the best! Yes, obviously I would like to have 40 Gig. of memory on board, but I have never lost sleep over 19 MB! In Topo, I can cover way more terrain than I could visit in a weekend, and in MetroGuide, it is adequate. When they offer the V with more memory, I will buy it, but they don't yet, so I'm happy. Like I said, there still isn't a better "dual purpose" GPSR out there. (dual purpose meaning off road "in my hand" use, and on road "on my dash" use)

There have been a few times where I have pondered carrying my bear spray in my hand instead of my V! I have been hiking Yellowstone National Park and the surrounding areas before light at times, and knowing you are in prime Grizzly country sends a few shivers up the spine in the pre-dawn darkness. I've been within 30-50 yards if Grizz. before, but not while geocaching! You never feel so alive, as when you are close to an animal who could easily make you lunch.(incidently, I have never replaced the V in my hand with the bear spray......I fear being lost more than bears!)

When you download the maps, you can select both City Select and Topo to be downloaded at the same time. The download then drops them both into your V. However, the unit will default to City Select (I believe) and that's all you will see. You need to turn off the City Select maps to see the topo maps. To do this, go to the map page and press "menu". Scroll down to "MapSource Info" and press "enter". You will see all of your downloaded maps with a checkmarked box next to them. Simply uncheck the box next to the City Select maps you want to disable one at a time "OR" you can press "menu" again from the MapSource Info page then select the types of maps you want to enable or disable all at once. Hope that made sense.

Works as well as you could ask for. Doesn't do maps, but that won't slow you one bit.

Yup. Sounds pretty bad doesn't it. I would send it Garmin's way and hope it's one of 2 things......cheap to fix or under warranty still!

Let's just say I am extra "sensitive" to this issue. Part of my living and my families living, is based on the software industry. I suppose it's one of those "victimless" crimes though, huh? No one really feels it when you "cyber" steal, do they? I mean, it's not like you walked into a store and swiped it is it?

quote: I am downloading metroguide from kazaa.com for free! Well dang! Your momma should be proud of you! You found somewhere you can steal it from without leaving your computer! Hey...you know what? I sorta like the stereo in your car. I think I will "download" it from your dash to mine tonight? Whaddya think? Let me know what you do for a living o.k.? I'm going to find a way to steal some of it.

There are lots of innaccuracies with anymap product, paper or digital (or otherwise). Do report errors to Garmin, but don't expect frequent updates. This is technology still in it's infancy, and what it does is still magical to me. If they tried to update roads everywhere in the nation every year(or whenever) Bill Gates himself couldn't afford the product. It's common to hear users complain that their part of the country isn't accurate, and heck...."I paid a lot of money for this thing!", but consider what we had in comparison about 5 years ago! I use Metroguide frequently and am still amazed with it. But then, cell phones still amaze me too!

You have pretty well surmised my guesses as to why the variance. Again, I could care less about it, it was lust a curiosity. I have too, noticed an amazing accuracy potential of the altitude readings when comparing them to known altitudes, such as marked passes in the mountains and such. Hey...I just imagined a new test! The V, a MAP 76S, a Vista, a Meridian Platinum all lined up on my dash! (I have access to them all) Of course, I would need a "navigator" to help me, or a driver, while I did it.

You have pretty well surmised my guesses as to why the variance. Again, I could care less about it, it was lust a curiosity. I have too, noticed an amazing accuracy potential of the altitude readings when comparing them to known altitudes, such as marked passes in the mountains and such. Hey...I just imagined a new test! The V, a MAP 76S, a Vista, a Meridian Platinum all lined up on my dash! (I have access to them all) Of course, I would need a "navigator" to help me, or a driver, while I did it.