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HELP! which GPS--venture HC, venture CX, explorist 500?


arribaperu

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Narrowed it down to 3 GPS's... but as novice, can't decide..

 

This will be used for mostly hiking in the woods and storing data about hike, etc... like marking where I find mushrooms, or other stuff... you know, recording hike.....maybe some geocaching... Turn by Turn directions might be nice, but not important at this time....I am leaning towards the explorist 500 because of features and price ($120).. Venture HC would cost about same, but should the limited memory in it concern me? and it seems more limited overall?

 

Venture CX seems good, but seems overall like the explorist, just more expensive?

 

I need help considering these three...! P.S.. As I will be hiking, I will be buying Topo maps for whichever one....

 

Thanks,

Steve

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I've been down the GPS road since the days they first came out. I'm in charge of GPS purchaces for work. My current personal GPS is a Garmin 60CSx and I love it. I overdid the memory with a 2 gig micro SD card. I put the entire western USA topo map in it although I don't need it. I save all my tracks when metal detecting or prospecting so I know where I've been and what I've found. It holds 1000 waypoints which is fantastic for Geocaching. The cost was 449 on Newegg.com but shop around, you might get it cheaper.

 

Jake81499

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Before considering a Magellan, you might want to read some of these links:

 

Magellan Customer Service The Worst

 

Magellan Triton Sending it Back

 

Magellan Support What Support?

 

Magellan Support or Lack thereof

 

Magellan Support Does it Exist?

 

Fed UP with Magellan Repair Support

 

Magellan Tech Support Sucks

 

Magellan Support Pathetic

 

vs.

 

Garmin Support

 

Great Garmin Service

 

Garmin Customer Support

 

Praise for Garmin Support

 

Outstanging Garmin Support

 

Great Garmin Customer Service

 

Garmin Support A+

 

Sure you can find some complaints about Garmin support, but you have to look hard. Sure you can find praise for Magellan support, but you have to look harder.

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I've been using the Garmin E Trex Venture HC for two months now and love the features: a high-sensitivity GPS receiver for peak performance in any environment and includes 23 megabytes (MB) of internal memory, a detailed basemap and crisp color screen. The usb port is very nice for uploading and downloading caches and waypoints using the Garmin MapSource maps and GSAK gps software. I especially like being able to find a cache I'd like to check out on www.geocaching.com and up load it immediately to the Garmin gps and then go out and look for it. I googled Garmin gps venture hc and came up with some places selling for as low as $120 dollars. I paid 169$ on line from Wal Mart three months ago :blink: . For me, the 500 way points is plenty, but if the other units you are considering have a SD memory card, that might be nice in the future. I think it's good to ask other people, and if you could go to an area "meet & greet" with a local gps event you might be able to ask and see the pros and cons of the units you are considering.

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I had to make the choice between the Venture HC ($129.99 + $24.99 MicroSD card) and the Venture Cx ($179.99). The autorouting ability of the Cx is really the clincher for me. I love being able to route to a geocache, find it, hop in the car and have it route me to the next one. This is especially helpful in parts of town that I am not really familiar with. The microSD card also allowed me to load an ton of maps, enough where I loaded it once and forgot about it.

 

I'm not sure what I am missing out on with the high sensitivity, but the performance of the non-high-sensitivity has been very reasonable.

 

If you have the funds, get the best of both worlds with the Legend/Vista HCx; expandability, autorouting, and high sensitivity. I went against it because I couldn't justify the $100 price difference (buying brick and mortar sucks) for a hobby I was new to.

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It depends on how much caching you do an in how large of an area you cache in. The most versitle of the three you list is the Explorist 500, it has unlimted map and waypoint storage. That is what I have been using for several years. But I travel a lot to geocache, were I live we have over 16,000 caches withing 100 miles.

With my explorsit I have files on the SD card for the geographic areas the I cache in. Garmin does not offer this feature, so for me Garmin is a no go. For you the garmin would be just fine.

 

As far as turn by turn navigation, I have used it on a small GPS, while it works I find the small screen to be a problem, for this I use one of the garmin Street pilots.

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Whatever you do, go with an "H" (or similar) model, which has a high-sensitivity receiver. Otherwise, you will likely be frustrated by your GPSr losing signal every time you go under tree cover or into a canyon.

 

Actually the CX models get pretty good reception. Far better than the old eTrex units.

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I have made my decision... I think I am going with the venture CX... It has glowing reviews, and I too also read it gets great signals in deep woods, even though it's not an "H"... I found it for $160, with shipping, and with topo maps.. which actually makes it as cheap or cheaper than the venture HC...

 

I am only confused by one thing.. if the sd slot on the venture cx is only for loading, and not saving (which I think I read), and I don't see any internal memory listed.. how does it save routes, etc..??

 

I hope I am making the right decision, but due to it's reviews I should be alright..

 

Steve

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I have made my decision... I think I am going with the venture CX... It has glowing reviews, and I too also read it gets great signals in deep woods, even though it's not an "H"... I found it for $160, with shipping, and with topo maps.. which actually makes it as cheap or cheaper than the venture HC...

 

I am only confused by one thing.. if the sd slot on the venture cx is only for loading, and not saving (which I think I read), and I don't see any internal memory listed.. how does it save routes, etc..??

 

I hope I am making the right decision, but due to it's reviews I should be alright..

 

Steve

 

You're making a good choice. It's a great unit. 160 with Topo is an outstanding price (mind saying where?).

 

The SD card will store maps and user POIs (points of interest). Tracks, routes and regular user waypoints are all stored in internal memory.

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thenerds.net has the venture cx with topo bundle..Using a coupon code I found.. it was actually $150... I hope it's not a misprint or something... No real description or pic to go along with ad.. so needless to say, I have no idea what topo map I getting..I have seen it on other sites with topo 2008( complete) and I have seen other sites that bundle it with just the northeast portion....

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That does sound too good to be true, considering Topo maps run $85. Maybe it's the regular blue Venture. But, if you don't get what they're advertising, you're entitled to the offer they're making in print.

 

BTW, I have a Venture Cx, Vista HCx, and an old monochrome Vista. The "H" indicating the GPS has the more sensitive chip. I can vouch for it's significant sensitivity. The sensitivity of the Cx and Vista run pretty much the same - horrible compared to the "H". The Cx does have a faster processor than the Vista which is evident when re-mapping.

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That does sound too good to be true, considering Topo maps run $85. Maybe it's the regular blue Venture. But, if you don't get what they're advertising, you're entitled to the offer they're making in print.

 

The part number provided on the thenerds.net website corresponds to the Venture CX according to the Garmin site. It does sound like a deal that is too good to be true of it includes the Venture CX and Mapsource Topo.

Edited by briansnat
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Received the gps today... It was the Venture CX adventure bundle that I received for $151.00 total..... It comes with the venture CX gps, carrying case, and a northeastern Topo map on an SD card.. so it wasn't the entire topo 2008 I was hoping for..

But, I really don't have a need for the northeastern topo, I needed midwest--ohio kentucky, etc..

 

It's still about $30 bucks cheaper than these bundles are going for anywhere, including ebay..

 

Wasn't extremely impressed by thenerds.net customer service.. Never received any response to any email I sent them, and when I called, someone put be on hold (with music playing) cutting me off while I was speaking to them.. etc...

 

Steve

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