An upgrade Question

[dave1980]

Hey everyone, I wanted to post this question to find out if its worth the extra money to upgrade or just keep what i have.

 

I have the Magellan SporTrak Color and am pretty happy with it xcept that it takes forever to warm up and well finding a signal in the woods even light woods seem to be a joke. I dont like the fact i cant upgrade the memory either.

 

I have been looking at the eTrex Venture Cx and am unsure of any real differences. other then the etrex has a slighter smaller screen but yet can add more memory.

 

Has anyone else compared these too yet or really know them both well? I havent had the pleasure of trying the venture Cx yet.

 

I dont really have a lot of money to spen on an upgrade or i would buy the best of the best I see the sportrack colors sell for 100 bucks so i figured i would put mine up as well with the USB adapter cable that i bought b/c i dont have a serial adapter on my pc. but anyway what do you guys think? I can buy the venture Cx on amazon for 189 dollars. Its the cheapest price i have found for the Venture Cx. If anyone knows of any other place cheaper please let me know that way my wife doesnt have to kill me for spending more money then i need to

 

Oh and the battery lasts a lot longer on the Venture Cx

 

Thanks Everyone

-Dave

Edited April 26, 2007 by dave1980

[dave1980]

It must be a busy week b/c usually by now someone would have comented

Edited April 27, 2007 by dave1980

[+hogrod]

I originally started out with a meridian gold and switched to a legendC. This was before the legendCx or venture CX with expandable memory slots, so I had to deal with going from a SD slot in the meridian, to 24mb of storage in the legendC.

Even with the small memory of the legendC, I really loved the menu system,color, & battery life improvements over the meridian. My only complaint would have to be the legendC really needs to be held properly(screen facing the sky) or it will loose sat. lock very easy, I was used to carrying my meridian in my pocket until I was close to a cache before with very few sat. lock issues.

Having to hold it properly may have been strange at first, though this is how you need to hold it to see the screen/use the gpsr so it's really a non-issue. Garmin puts the lanyard mount on the bottom and if you hang the gpsr around your neck, it hangs upside down causing signal loss sometimes. Again as long as its held properly it holds lock very well in tree cover & valleys.

My 60cx and legendC are always within 20ft or better of each other.

[dave1980]

I originally started out with a meridian gold and switched to a legendC. This was before the legendCx or venture CX with expandable memory slots, so I had to deal with going from a SD slot in the meridian, to 24mb of storage in the legendC.

Even with the small memory of the legendC, I really loved the menu system,color, & battery life improvements over the meridian. My only complaint would have to be the legendC really needs to be held properly(screen facing the sky) or it will loose sat. lock very easy, I was used to carrying my meridian in my pocket until I was close to a cache before with very few sat. lock issues.

Having to hold it properly may have been strange at first, though this is how you need to hold it to see the screen/use the gpsr so it's really a non-issue. Garmin puts the lanyard mount on the bottom and if you hang the gpsr around your neck, it hangs upside down causing signal loss sometimes. Again as long as its held properly it holds lock very well in tree cover & valleys.

My 60cx and legendC are always within 20ft or better of each other.

 

Yea i would love to buy something like the 60Cx but unfortunately thats way out of my reach. I am just really curiouse if its worth the jump from my current unit to the one I listed.

[+hogrod]

I originally started out with a meridian gold and switched to a legendC. This was before the legendCx or venture CX with expandable memory slots, so I had to deal with going from a SD slot in the meridian, to 24mb of storage in the legendC.

Even with the small memory of the legendC, I really loved the menu system,color, & battery life improvements over the meridian. My only complaint would have to be the legendC really needs to be held properly(screen facing the sky) or it will loose sat. lock very easy, I was used to carrying my meridian in my pocket until I was close to a cache before with very few sat. lock issues.

Having to hold it properly may have been strange at first, though this is how you need to hold it to see the screen/use the gpsr so it's really a non-issue. Garmin puts the lanyard mount on the bottom and if you hang the gpsr around your neck, it hangs upside down causing signal loss sometimes. Again as long as its held properly it holds lock very well in tree cover & valleys.

My 60cx and legendC are always within 20ft or better of each other.

 

Yea i would love to buy something like the 60Cx but unfortunately thats way out of my reach. I am just really curiouse if its worth the jump from my current unit to the one I listed.

 

Strange all you got out of my post was 60cx in the last sentence, I was trying to say my legendC and 60cx are very comparable in accuracy. Yes you will probably love the ventureCX, if you read my post above you will see I only have one issue with the newer color etrex series, and actually prefer their smaller size.

 

I have owned a sportrak map, meridian gold(two),explorist 200, 210, & 400. I still own a legendC and 60cx & will probably never buy another magellan. To me it is definitely worth switching, But then again I prefer the garmin menu system, and features.

[+Miragee]

I'm not familiar with your Magellan, but I think you would really like the Venture Cx. Coupled with the City Navigator maps, it will auto-route you around unfamiliar areas.

[+paulmc]

I have a Venture Cx as well, and while I do really like it I don't think you're going to get any better signal in tree cover. That being said, I haven't had a problem losing the signal while it's in my pocket unless the woods are dense. Maybe I just live closer to the satellites?

[+ergomaniac]

One of my sons uses the Sportrak Color and the other uses the Venture CX. My sons are quite competitive when they are Geocaching together but I think the GPS performance would have to be called a draw. Both hold a signal reasonably well under heavy tree cover however, the Sportrak definitely suffers from the Magellan slingshot affect (sends you past the cache and then corrects). I like many of the features on the Sportrak (the electronic (3 axis) compass is hard to beat) but I prefer the Venture's color screen and data card. If you have to re-invest in the mapping software to go with the Venture I would think it would be a pricey upgrade. If budget is a concern and if the Sportrak is pretty well meeting your needs, I'd be inclined to keep it until it breaks or until you have the $$ to move up to one of Garmin's SIRF models.

[dave1980]

One of my sons uses the Sportrak Color and the other uses the Venture CX. My sons are quite competitive when they are Geocaching together but I think the GPS performance would have to be called a draw. Both hold a signal reasonably well under heavy tree cover however, the Sportrak definitely suffers from the Magellan slingshot affect (sends you past the cache and then corrects). I like many of the features on the Sportrak (the electronic (3 axis) compass is hard to beat) but I prefer the Venture's color screen and data card. If you have to re-invest in the mapping software to go with the Venture I would think it would be a pricey upgrade. If budget is a concern and if the Sportrak is pretty well meeting your needs, I'd be inclined to keep it until it breaks or until you have the $$ to move up to one of Garmin's SIRF models.

 

I'm not concerned about the mapping software I'm sure i can find a used cd somewhere

 

But I really like the expandable memory on the Ventture Cx for bigger and better maps as well.

 

I really apreciate the feedback from everyone.

[+CheshireFrog]

I'm not concerned about the mapping software I'm sure i can find a used cd somewhere

 

I wouldn't be so sure. You might find Topo easy enough, but because of the unlock scheme in City Navigator it's not as readily available used. Most people either have two receivers and use both unlock codes, or, like me, they hold the second code in reserve against a possible future purchase.

[dave1980]

I'm not concerned about the mapping software I'm sure i can find a used cd somewhere

 

I wouldn't be so sure. You might find Topo easy enough, but because of the unlock scheme in City Navigator it's not as readily available used. Most people either have two receivers and use both unlock codes, or, like me, they hold the second code in reserve against a possible future purchase.

 

what do you mean? Like when you buy the cd it comes with 2 cd keys and can only activite each key once?

[+CheshireFrog]

I'm not concerned about the mapping software I'm sure i can find a used cd somewhere

 

I wouldn't be so sure. You might find Topo easy enough, but because of the unlock scheme in City Navigator it's not as readily available used. Most people either have two receivers and use both unlock codes, or, like me, they hold the second code in reserve against a possible future purchase.

 

what do you mean? Like when you buy the cd it comes with 2 cd keys and can only activite each key once?

 

Exactly.

[dave1980]

I'm not concerned about the mapping software I'm sure i can find a used cd somewhere

 

I wouldn't be so sure. You might find Topo easy enough, but because of the unlock scheme in City Navigator it's not as readily available used. Most people either have two receivers and use both unlock codes, or, like me, they hold the second code in reserve against a possible future purchase.

 

what do you mean? Like when you buy the cd it comes with 2 cd keys and can only activite each key once?

 

Exactly.

 

ouch that does kinda suck Ok well ill just have to buy an original

Thanks for the info