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60csx..is The Reception Worth The $?


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I just bought the Vista C, replacing a very old unit. We have not been able to test the Vista that much yet in heavy cover as there are no leaves out yet.

 

With my old gpsr it was very frustrating when we were in the woods and reception was lost. I was hoping that the Vista would be better for the $249 I paid.

 

But now I am wondering if I should return it and jump to the 60csx.

 

Have any of you jumped and do you think the reception was worth it?

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I can tell you that I get FAR better reception on my 60CSx than I did with my 60CS, even when I used an external antenna. I regularly carry the "x" in my jacket pocket while in heavily wooded areas and it maintains an excellent lock on almost everything in the sky.

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I just bought the Vista C, replacing a very old unit. We have not been able to test the Vista that much yet in heavy cover as there are no leaves out yet.

 

With my old gpsr it was very frustrating when we were in the woods and reception was lost. I was hoping that the Vista would be better for the $249 I paid.

 

But now I am wondering if I should return it and jump to the 60csx.

 

Have any of you jumped and do you think the reception was worth it?

 

For me the answer is yes. My 60csx maintains a lock under conditions were my old 60cs didn't pick up anything. I quickly sold my 60cs to help get enough cash for the 60csx. A no brainer for me.

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In one word, YES! Plus the fact that you get a memory card. Well worth the extra $50.00 - 100.00 in my opinion.

 

I considered the CS and C also and the vista and legend.

 

Once you spend the money and have it, you will soon forget about price. But once you are unable to find a cache or 2 , you will regret not having the better receiver. It also works lots better in the car and indoors also.

 

Cary in S.D.

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I'm so glad you started this chain. I'm interested in upgrading from my Garmin GPSMap60c to a Garmin GPSMap 60cx and was wondering just how much better the receiption on the new unit is. I find myself extremely limited with the 60c as most of the survey work I do is in the woods, and, it doesn't take much tree cover for the reception to wink out. So, those of you who invested in the 60cx are fairly happy then? Please let me know if there's anything else I should be aware of. Thank you.

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For now, if you use GSAK, you have to Export the cache information to Mapsource and then load the new 'x' units from that program.

 

The transfer from GSAK to these new units directly doesn't work right now.

 

Other than that, I don't know of any thing you need to be aware of for these new units.

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Just be aware I think there is a bug that freezes the compass and the map on the transition between caches. I have posted a report to Garmin but with no reply yet. There are other posts on this forum with the same symptoms. I have all the latest software downloads and it still does it requiring a recalibration after every cache! I would wait until this is clarified by Garmin.

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I just bought the Vista C, replacing a very old unit. We have not been able to test the Vista that much yet in heavy cover as there are no leaves out yet.

 

With my old gpsr it was very frustrating when we were in the woods and reception was lost. I was hoping that the Vista would be better for the $249 I paid.

 

But now I am wondering if I should return it and jump to the 60csx.

 

Have any of you jumped and do you think the reception was worth it?

 

Well, don't count on WAAS being available for a while if your in the central USA.

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lets talk apples:

 

Garmin Legend Color (not the Cx version ) is around $200

 

Garmin 60CSX is around $420.

 

When geocaching EVERYONE is saying put the GPS away when you get within 20 feet. Are we all saying that the Legend Color at times will FAIL to get you to within 20 feet? I doubt it. Geocaches would have some very high difficulty ratings and numerous failure to find (FTFs) listed if the generic cheap GPS was having problems.

 

That said, the 60CSX is "future proof" for maybe five years, as I doubt there would be any new incredible technology coming along to compete with it. (or its cousin 76CSX or other SIRFIII chip GPS devices). If you have the money and you want one SUPER UNIVERSAL CAN DO ANYTHING ANY OTHER GPS CAN DO, ONLY BETTER type device then the 60CSX is your man!!

 

If I owned a 60CSX I would say it is the best too, but I still think that for that price difference extra $220 + $30 more you could get a Ique 3600 PDA with maps, voice autorouting, cachemate geocache clues, expandable memory, downloaded web pages to read, adobe documents to read, external antenna connector, car mount/power, large screen, note taking device.

 

 

 

 

Thanks for the replys.

 

I just returned the Vista C and ordered a 60csx from chumbo. Should be here today. I'll let you know how it works. :anibad:

Edited by Ellteejak
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Good Point any GPS will get you close enough to find any cache.

 

For me my I did not go with the ique or another PDA was that the 60CSx looked more durable and as an hiker durability was a key factor. It also seems that the PDA does not have the SIRF chip yet, though maybe I'm wrong. For me with my Vista I have had quite a few caches I could not find and I would rather blame the heavy tree cover than myself. Im am happy with the Vista and happier with the 60csx and would probably happy with the Ique as well. I'm sure Garmin is also happy to have my $$$.

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My 2 cents: I went caching 2 days ago in a place that is notorious for loosing a signal. Fact is I wouldnt go caching there w/my etrex legend it was so bad. I'm by far not the best cacher but you get me w/in 20ft and it's pretty much found. The tree cover can be so heavy that my legend would "jump" from having a signal to none...and a correction of 30 to 300 ft +- and that is when it would read a signal at all. Like I said I went 2 days ago with my new 60csx and 1. I Never lost signal 2. Never had less than 8 sats locked 3. Correction never went above 15ft +- and got down to 9ft +- all w/o the WAAS 35 bird that is being moved. 4. I found 3 caches in 30 min where before, with my legend, I was lucky to get close to 1 in this park w/o using the sun and stars to guide me. For me it was well worth the extra $$$$. But again it's jut my 2 cents.

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For me the answer is yes. My 60csx maintains a lock under conditions were my old 60cs didn't pick up anything. I quickly sold my 60cs to help get enough cash for the 60csx. A no brainer for me.

 

So Jb, How much did you get for the 60CS towards your CSX? I am in the same situation, looking to upgrade from a 76CS to a 76CSX. My 76 is only 4 months old.

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For me the answer is yes. My 60csx maintains a lock under conditions were my old 60cs didn't pick up anything. I quickly sold my 60cs to help get enough cash for the 60csx. A no brainer for me.

 

So Jb, How much did you get for the 60CS towards your CSX? I am in the same situation, looking to upgrade from a 76CS to a 76CSX. My 76 is only 4 months old.

 

What I did is buy the 60csx with Auto kit from GPSdiscount.com for $539. I really didn't need the Auto kit, since I already had those accessories. So I sold the old 60cs with the Auto kit on Ebay for about $400. The "X" series is well worth it. No regrets.

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Just be aware I think there is a bug that freezes the compass and the map on the transition between caches. I have posted a report to Garmin but with no reply yet. There are other posts on this forum with the same symptoms. I have all the latest software downloads and it still does it requiring a recalibration after every cache! I would wait until this is clarified by Garmin.

 

I can't say that I have this problem. Mine has worked flawlessly so far and I am extremely pleased with it.

 

As for the reception, my CSx blows away what my old SporTrak could do. I live in a bottom floor apartment and my CSx picks up 6-8 satellites and that's without being in a direct line of sight. It's amazing.

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As for the reception, my CSx blows away what my old SporTrak could do. I live in a bottom floor apartment and my CSx picks up 6-8 satellites and that's without being in a direct line of sight. It's amazing.

 

I haven't been able to try any of the "X" series, but I have tried this with a Tom Tom GO 300 which uses an older version of the SiRF chip and had almost similar results. Got about 3-5 satellites in the middle of the bottom floor of a 7-story condo! The reception is amazing! Best I could do with anything else in the same building was a similar result with a Lowrance IFinder GO when I was 5 ft. or less from a window. If I had the budget I'd grab a "X" in a heartbeat (one day this will be more standard and the price will go down though!).

Edited by hairymon
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I just bought the Vista C, replacing a very old unit. We have not been able to test the Vista that much yet in heavy cover as there are no leaves out yet.

 

With my old gpsr it was very frustrating when we were in the woods and reception was lost. I was hoping that the Vista would be better for the $249 I paid.

 

But now I am wondering if I should return it and jump to the 60csx.

 

Have any of you jumped and do you think the reception was worth it?

 

I've had the 60csx for about 6 weeks now. Its reception is much better than my old Legend. The Legend often couldn't get a lock in moderate tree cover, but the csx always gets and keeps a lock no matter what the cover. (I'm in the Pacific Northwest, so we have lots of big trees.) In fact, I can carry the csx in my jacket pocket, zipped up, and it still keeps a lock just fine. This alone made it worth the price. The Legend was basically useless for forest hikes.

 

But I do have a few complaints. First, the trip odometer seems to under-report the mileage by 5 to 8 percent. I just took a 24 mile walk today, and the odometer read 21.9. I know it was a 24 mile walk, because when I downloaded the track into Mapsource, the "track properties" said 24 miles. I also clocked the GPS against a measured mile at one point, and it was about 8 percent short. It's done this several times. I emailed Garmin about this 3 weeks ago, but got no response.

 

Also, the barometric altimeter is not very reliable. Sometimes, it just shuts down (stops displaying any elevation), and will only restart by turning the unit off and on again. Also, sometimes, it records elevations that are way off, e.g., sudden jumps of 9000 feet, or sudden drops to 1000 feet below sea level. Other users have reported this. And again, Garmin tech support hasn't responded to my email about this.

 

I think the GPS elevation is actually more reliably accurate than the barometric elevation, especially since the csx usually has a lock on at least 7 sats, so I think I'd be happier with the 60Cx, and would have saved $50.

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I just bought the Vista C, replacing a very old unit. We have not been able to test the Vista that much yet in heavy cover as there are no leaves out yet.

 

With my old gpsr it was very frustrating when we were in the woods and reception was lost. I was hoping that the Vista would be better for the $249 I paid.

 

But now I am wondering if I should return it and jump to the 60csx.

 

Have any of you jumped and do you think the reception was worth it?

 

I've had the 60csx for about 6 weeks now. Its reception is much better than my old Legend. The Legend often couldn't get a lock in moderate tree cover, but the csx always gets and keeps a lock no matter what the cover. (I'm in the Pacific Northwest, so we have lots of big trees.) In fact, I can carry the csx in my jacket pocket, zipped up, and it still keeps a lock just fine. This alone made it worth the price. The Legend was basically useless for forest hikes.

 

But I do have a few complaints. First, the trip odometer seems to under-report the mileage by 5 to 8 percent. I just took a 24 mile walk today, and the odometer read 21.9. I know it was a 24 mile walk, because when I downloaded the track into Mapsource, the "track properties" said 24 miles. I also clocked the GPS against a measured mile at one point, and it was about 8 percent short. It's done this several times. I emailed Garmin about this 3 weeks ago, but got no response.

 

Also, the barometric altimeter is not very reliable. Sometimes, it just shuts down (stops displaying any elevation), and will only restart by turning the unit off and on again. Also, sometimes, it records elevations that are way off, e.g., sudden jumps of 9000 feet, or sudden drops to 1000 feet below sea level. Other users have reported this. And again, Garmin tech support hasn't responded to my email about this.

 

I think the GPS elevation is actually more reliably accurate than the barometric elevation, especially since the csx usually has a lock on at least 7 sats, so I think I'd be happier with the 60Cx, and would have saved $50.

 

I have noticed the same problem with my odometer. I have not yet checked the baro altimeter.

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