trooperdjb

An alternative is to open the GPX files in Mapsource that came with your GPSr on a CD. Then from Mapsource send the waypoints to the device.

The eTrex H is probably one of the best choices but if you want to go even lower check out something like the Foretrex 101. Uses 2 AAA batteries. Got on for my son at an Aldi's grocery store for about $50. The only downsides are lack of the high sensetivity reciever and the serial port for loading cache coordinates. Othewise check the used market. Probably lots of vistaC's at good prices now that the HC's are out. Trooper

Just a thought and I can't direct you to specific software but possibly a PocketPC with either compact flash or blue tooth GPSr added? That way you can create data fields in Excel or some other application and pull in the location from the GPS portion. The biggest downside is that the PocketPC's are not designed for much field use. If you drop a hand held GPS into the mud or even water just wash it off and go on with life. The PocketPC would probably be done in by the same treatment. Trooper

Like PigPen I have both and for auto use much prefer the 60. I use one of those cell phone holders to mount it and the side clamps interfere with the buttons on the side of the Vista. The front mounted buttons on the 60 work just fine. Also while the resolution is the same the 60 screen is larger so easier at least for me to take in at a glance while driving. I know some will come along with the Vista screen is brighter argument and while it is noticably brighter I personally have never had a problem with viewing the 60 under any conditions. One other thing to consider if you're going to be using either in the car fairly often, get a USB car type charger/adaptor. I use the generic mini usb phone chargers that are sold for Motorola cell phones. Trooper.

Well, that's what they tell us. However, the problem is the waterproof rating is a lie. They are not waterproof (any more than the new Garmin Colorado). Look on the threads, and like me, you will find people whose eXplorists got wet and were damaged or died. As was mentioned, the battery compartment does not seal well. Water gets in. The 4 pin round connector on many Garmins is much better, and it lets no water into the unit. Hmmmm haven't tried the Vista for waterproof but I did dunk the 60CSx. since they don't really float and I use it on my boat I clipped one of those key floats to it and had to test it so I dropped it into the lake. No ill effects and the key float is sufficient to keep it floating.

You can if you own or lease the land you're hunting or fishing on. Not sure about Indiana but in Wisconsin you need a license to hunt or fish no matter if you own the land or not except for nuisance species like squirrels or rabbits and a farmer with a permit (another special license) white tail deer.

I agree with ventura, I have one of each although I had the 60 first as when I bought the HCx wasn't available and I was more interested in the better accuracy. I've since gotten used to using the rocker and enter key. Pretty similar to text messaging on a normal cell phone. Once you get used to it you can be pretty quick one handed. Yes the screen of the HCx is brighter but I've never had a problem not being able to read the screen on the 60 under any conditions. I have found that I like having the seperate buttons for each function on the 60 better. The press or press and hold to get the different functions out of the HCx isn't something that I've seen anyone else mention in the discussions. Maybe it's just me but I especially have trouble on the HCx pressing down straight enough each time on the click stick to get a good "Enter" instead of moving the cursor. Just my $0.02 worth and you'll be very pleased with either unit. One thing that may tip the decision for you is that you really and I mean REALLY want the maps. So if it's a choice of HCx and maps vs. 60 and no maps I'd go for the HCx. Trooper

That's exactly the same problem I'm having. As soon as I try to pan it says parsing caches forever. Glad to know I'm not alone in this now all we need is a solution.

The most important and most expensive accessory to get is mapping software. If you want street maps that are routable (give it a destination and it will provide directions) then get city navigator. If you're using it off road for hiking you may want TOPO maps. Other then that a good scren protector isn't a bad idea.

Most GPSr's at least the Garmins allow you to change the units to whatever you want.

Mark a waypoint by pressing the Mark button on the lower left then press the up arrow until you're over the location press enter and a little number pad will come up. use the arrow keys to move to the correct digit then highlight the digit and press enter. When you're done press ok then arrow down to the main ok and you should be good to go.

I've checked at highway speeds with both my 60CSx and Vista HCx as well as timing against measured miles and all agree within 0.1 MPH at 70 MPH. My speedomoter on the other hand reads 2-4 MPH slow with the 2 being at about 40 and the 4 at 70. There was an earlier thread that discussed this with the short story being that most auto manufacturers intentionally have the speedometer read faster than you're actually going most likely to avoid complaints and law suits due to tickets when you were just a little over.

Another way to delete a bunch of waypoints at a time, open mapsource, receive from unit to get all the waypoints from your GPSr, delete what you want on your computer then go into the GPSr and delete all and send back the edited list. Lots easier to multiple delete on the pc.

Try doing it with Mapsource that should have come with your GPSr. Open mapsource, select edit new waypoint and type in the details. Once they're all in then connect to your computer and send to device. trooper

Wilderness Walker, I've been at this about 9 months so certainly no expert but here's my $0.02 worth. GSAK is really nice but I don't think necessary unless you're going to be managing many many caches. So far I've made do with just using Mapsource. I open the results of my pocket queries in Mapsource do any editing and send to my GPSr. I was using paper for the cache pages but already had a pocket pc so it was an easy thing get GPx Sonar and go paperless. Trooper

I power both my 60 CSx and my son's vista HCx off the mini usb charger i have for my motorola phone. Been doing it for about a year on the 60 and a month on the Vista. Haven't had any problems yet.

Only talking from reviews but seems a lot of people are fairly happy with the Mio's and they look like they're priced a little lower for the feature set. Plus I think most have the SirfStarIII chipset so reception should be very good. Personally I'm very happy with my 60 CSx in the car. Guess I've never had the fancy voice prompts so the little beeps are fine. Trooper.

The other way to do it is download all waypoints to your pc then delete all from the waypoint page and in mapsource delete in groups or however you want then re-load the keepers back to the gps. Kind of between delete all and going through all 1000 one at a time and removing the ones you want to.

Walmart also has something similar to the otter boxes in the sporting goods department. I think they're listed as waterproof boxes. Small ones just under $5 and large ones maybe 6 or 7. They look pretty durable.

I have my older Ipaq and with the Rhino hard case about the only things I worry about are dropping it in water or leaving it behind. If I didn't have that I'd probably go with one of the $20 palms too although now that I've been using it I really like GPXSonar. From what I understand there's converting to be done with the palms while the Ipaq and sonar take the GPX files from pocket querries right in and have a listing plus full cache pages available for up to 500 caches in a file for 2 MB of memory and with a 256 mb memory card you can have a lot of cache details available.

I got a Garmin foretrex 101 at Aldis for about $50 for my son to use when we first got started. It's not bad, nice and small gives an arrow and distance. The only 2 real issues we've had with it are: First it's not a high sensetivity receiver so it can loose signal under trees and more importantly it's one character short in the allowable length for cache names. If you try to load 2 chaches that differ only in the last character one dissapears. Other then that it's been good for him.

Two different swiss army knives one small with a retractable pen and a larger cyber tool with a removable pen next to the tweezers. I ALWAYS have my swiss army knife with me and that little pen has saved me on more then one cache.

No but I'll be able to tell you in 3-4 days (stealth gloat) Ordered the Vista HCx for my son today.

In my area the term "Gas Saver" usually refers to caches that are located in the Park-N-Ride lots where people that have long commutes meet up to car pool.

I'll agree with what the others have said. Seemed fine 2 days ago but was very slow yesterday and today UGH!!. Home page loads but the search page gets as far as the green background and then just stops. Not having a problem on any other sites. Hope it gets cleared up soon.